Crash - No. 45 (1987-10)(Newsfield)(GB)

WITHFEATURI

T

Run Hi
KICK-

R OWN SO

3k in and make money

•'i '[ t

THE CRASH SAMP

Seven top games demos from the
^fcetarfs insidel—

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j®r

i'l

CRASH

HISTORY

No.*T

I

In wards and covers

nam! COMSAT SCHOOL arcade machine
(spills actioMday out with MIRROR SOFT

SIX OF THE BEST FROM

m^^m

-1

managing editor Bameby Page
STAFF WRITERS Rteftard Eddy, Lloyd
Mangrairt, Ian Phillipson, Bun Stone
PHOTOGRAPHERS Cameron Pound,
Micna* Parkinson

TECHNICAL WRITERS Simon N Goodwin,
Jon Bates

ADVENTURE CDLIJMM Derek BrswstOf
PBM COLUMN Brenfon Kavsnagli
STRATEGY COLUMN PMIippa Irving
EDUCATION COLUMN Rosette McLeod
LONfXJNCQflRESPQNQEW John MiriSon
CONTRIBUTORS Rodin Candy.
Mike Dum, Paur Evana-,
Dominie Handy, Nick Roberts.
Mark Rothwefl, Paul Sumner

EOrTORCAL DIRECTOR Roger Keen

PRODUCTION CONTROLLER
De%U Nresflm

ART DIRECTOR Gordon Dwce

ILLUSTRATOR Oliver Frey

DESIGN Tony Lorten, Marfcie Kendrfck,

Wayne Alton

PROCESS AND PIANNJNG

Uaflhev?Utn«fel,Ja«atrtan(K»u«

Nlok Orcftanl

ADVERTISEMENT MANAGER
Roger Beiwott
ADVERTISEMENT EXECUTIVE
Andrew Smalos

SUBSCRIPTIONS Demse Roberts
MAIL ORDER Garol Kinsey

EDITORIAL AND PRODUCTION

t/2K(ng Street, Uritow, Stiropsli/w SYS

1AQ fflf (0584) 5851

Please address correspondence to the

appropriate porsenl

MAIL ORDER AND SUBSCRIPTIONS

pq Box 20, Ludlow, Shropshire $Y8

ttfis (0584) 5620

ADVERTISING

&(05M)4803 0fl(Q5»)S>S2

FEATURES

TypesoCiny fty The Tortoise SheH Press,
' UCflOVl

Prtnted In Englaoo By Carlisle We* Offset
LM, ttewtwt Trading Estate, Cartiste,
Cttor&ria GA2 Tffl -member of the BPCC
group

Dtstrrtwted by COMAG Twstvck Road.
West Drayton, Middlesex WT ?Q£

NEWSF1ELD

A NEWSFiELD PUBLtCATtON

P

ABC

» nMflM m*t M Wfldocad ■ *ioto or In p*i
*Wwl tta mmtm com** <# ■* e^rfim hrtdw t .
We SMMt UKferUkx to rrtrn mflNng hoi Hi la
CMSH - kicftiofM wptflm net pketognpMo nutartH,
•oftwire •*> hn<hrai - u«n» IHt KcampanM tor i
•uOWV "" I' l* . i** H I Hl l WP«ta UMoiclM
wrlttH of iteto utsim is mtoom to* tf uaad In «■
mauidat It pwd fc» at our wtw rate.

© 1967 Newsfiehl ltd

COVER BY OUnrFrey

38

BUN IT AGAIN

Fifcky Eddy and Ftobin Candy don their black belts for a good kicK-'em-up

43

THE CRASH SAMPLER

An inlay card wrtrt full details plus screenshots!

4a

THE BUDGET BOOM

Are cheap games good for you? Bamaby Page asks the big cheeses,

63 BREAKING INTO SOFTWARE

Programmer David Lester on how to gel your software published - with
inside information from the men who choose the ga

©3 THE CRASH HISTORY

l Mangram Esq goes back to 1984 m the first instalment of the complete
CRASH story

if MICRONET MADNESS

Paul Evans introduces art occ asional column on Spectrum comms

106 COMPILATIONS

Paul Sumner sums up the latest compilations

133 ARCADES

Ben Stone and Tony Thompson get through a bagful of 1 0ps on the hot new
coin-ops

REGULARS

II FEAR AND LOATHING

Hunter S (I'm getting married in the morning . . , ) Mmson goes out with a

33 LLOYD MANG RAM'S FORUM

CRASH is dull, says a reader. Oh no it isn't, say Lloyd and several million
alher readers.

50 ON THE SCREEN

era in full from Mike D,. king of the skirting I .
extra-big gallery

56 LLOYD MANGRAM'S PLAYING TIPS

A Game Over map and all the PQKE& you cai

92 BREWSTER'S ADVENTURE TRAIL

Derek answers yet more Signstumps end relaxes With The Labours Ol
Hercules

103 PHILIPPA IRVING'S FRONTLINE

An egghead on Roundheads - .'sophy of reviewing, end making

sense of Chaos

III BRENDON KAVANAGH'S PBM MAILBOX

An In-depth IojjK at Earihwood with a special .startup a

115 JETMAN

Heap big loony faces death , , . yet again! AcW

117 TECH NICHE

Simon N Goodwin looks in the Mira and Jon Elates, gets into chords

130 PREVIEWS

Go Through TheTrapDoorand meet FrecWp Hardest in Lloyd's look- forward

145 ET AL

Etc, ad infinitum, con brio, service cpmpris - all the odd bits like tha '
Bail in full and thw month's videos

EE2

THE CRASH HISTC

DO IT YOURSELF

48 COMBAT SCHOOL

Win a Combat School arcade game from Imagine and grab a look at the
Spectrum version

08 SUPER ACTION MEN & GIRLS

Get the Mean Streak mood and win a fab day out at Super Action from
Mirrorsofl

139 WIN A BERK

One cuddly Berk up for grabs in a preview come!

Aa-tenn-shon! Right, list'n up
you disgustin" bunch of waifs
and strays, the next CRASH wrti
be on parade as from October
29 so I want you smart, tidy and
ready for inspeeshon! MOVE
OUT!

Ohj and Mangram get your 'air
cut you "orrible little man and no
fagging behind! Hut, hut, hutt

CRASH October 1987 3

I

CENT

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X

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CRASH GOES UP

Straight from the shouldj#ti •
uadty we are forced lo make a
price increase m CRASH starting
rjeximpnth with the November
issue, No 46, which w.H bed ,25.
We know it seems quite a steep
increase, but it should be seen in
the light of the period of time over
which we have held CRASH down
at£1, almost two years in fact.The
last increase was for the April 1 986

mere have I
several severe rises in the price of
paper which obeys an
international market law of supply
and demand - there's never
enough to go round - pfustbe
usual round at increases in printing
■services, salaries and overheads.

The increased use of full colour
has also added to production
costs, as has the greater number
of specialist contributors wri
have allowed us to expand the
areas covered by the magazine.
So rather than put up the price by
and then have to
j further rapid inc
decided to make the rise sufficient
• ibie to hold the price for as
long as possible - certainly for
another 20 months.

In terms of comparable value,
we doubt that many other

price Increases for very long, for
i!oo have suffered escalating
production costs. Since CRASH
started, it has usually been the first
I up its price when absolutely
necessary and Ihe others hs
always followed within a few
months. We do hope you will find
*a se acceptable.

SHOULD SHOOT-

'EM-UPS BE

BANNED?

No. After (he Hungerfo i 'd killings
everyone here andthveughoui the
try was suddenly well aware
of the violence in camp
games: phrases in ke ' it's

great fun shooing everything In
sight' took on a disturbing new '
meaning.

And soon after the incident 'an
industry figure' wrote in Computer
Trade Wee*:. I
.commercial exploitation of
unnecessary violence is a
prevalent theme both on the part
of the games and magazine
publishers'.

We have reconsidered the good
taste of what we day in CRASH,
and no doubt many sol I
houses will do the same wit i
games. But the real thrill of most
shoot-'em-ups ISN'T the
destruction, it's the satisfaction of
skill and coordination in a fast-
moving game which might as well
okey. After a)1 r no-one takes
m 'spacecraft'
seriously .

This Is a aufejed to which we'll
be returning as demands increase
for censorship, or at least

A slight reshuffle at the Towers
(Mike Dunn was demanding a
bigger desk and having to rent
space off Nick Roberts . . . ) has
meant new titles for a couple of
oldies: Roger 'What? Me move ►

CRASH October 1967 7

m

m

)

r

from mag to mag? ' Kean and
Bamaby Page. We're both still on
CRASH - Roger is Editorial
Director and Bamaby is Managing
Editor.

All mat means Is that day-to-day
hassling - by software houses,
readers, potential writers,
whoever - should be directed to
Bamaby and not Roger, (Pause for
Roger to breathe sigh of relief.)

Speaking of potential writers,
we are looking for a new copy
ed itor - someone who goes
through everyone else's writing
and corrects spelling,
grammatical misteaks and,
prepares it to for typesetting. It's
not really a game-playing job, but
if you're realty hot on English,
probably with A level at least, and
you'd like to get into the
production side of magazines,
contact the Man Ed at CRASH.

ONE OF OUR SUBS
OFFERS IS MISSING

It's not often minions make it onto
the editorial pages, but a

spokesman for Guru Denise has
asked us to point out that a few of
the US Gotd games in the Issue 44
subscription offer have been
delayed in programming. Sit tight
and they'll arrive!

Also, for technical reasons Tai-
Pan and Renegade may be
delayed if you've sent off for them
through mail order,

TWO I, BALLS

/, Bali 2 was originally planned as a
preview for this issue and only
became a review very close to
press date. By that time, da boys
in design had already -irrevocably
- allocated it a place on the
preview pages, and the page with
the picture on it had left Ludlow.
That's why there's a photo but no
preview!

In other words, it was an error for
technical reasons. (That's enough
technical reasons - Ed Dir) (Who 's
running this announcement
anyway? - Man Ed)

ROGER KEAN
BARNABY PAGE

IN NEXT MONTHS
CRASH

INTO THE THIRD
DIMENSION!

Yes, it's true! We're always going on about 3-D graphics,
isometric perspectives et al f but in next month's issue, Oli
Fray goes three-dee with a vengeance. CRASH is giving
every reader a free pair of spectacles with a green lens
and a red lens -they'll be tucked inside the issue -through
which some of Oliver's illustrations may be seen leaping
off the page. Even now, his artwork is being lovingly pulled
to pieces, readjusted into depth planes and
reconstructed to look real weird. Dent miss out on this
truly awesome experience! To be there is to be 3-D!

FX and GRAFFIX

Indeed we are, always going on about 3-D graphics, isometric
perspectives, nice little tunes and raunchy explosions et at, The film
industry started off in back gardens, the software industry in back
bedrooms (never the front); films grew in sophistication until today
experts are needed in special FX experts, sound and music. Games
software production has also grown to the point where programmers
are no longer expected to do ail the work. Next month we take an
In-depth took at the software specialists - the new generation of
professionals.

PLUS . . .

FANZINE FILE - more from the sharp edge of private publishing

CRASH CHALLENGE - another victim, but will the hapless person

be a reader or a reviewer?

ON TAPE AND DISK - a faulty load, a damaged cassette, we take

our bits a plastic for granted , but just how do they get the binary onto

tape or disk in massive .quantities? CRASH takes a trip round a

duplicator.

And that's just soma of the exciting items in November's CRASH,
on sale Thursday 29 October.

REVIEWS

The CRASH guide to October's offerings

SMASHED!

22 WIZBALL

Ocean's weird and wonderfully way-out Wiz game

132 BUBBLE SOBBLE

Meet Bub and Bob in Firebird's magnificent Taito conversion

126 I, BALL 2

The ball is back, bigger and bounder than ever

HOT SHOTS

75% and over .

10 HYSTERIA

Corky arcade adventure through time from Software Projects
17 MOON STRIKE

Humorous shoot- 'em -up courtesy of Mirrorsoft
21 ATHEHA

Warrior-goddess of the arcades hits the Spectrum
24 PLEXAR

Budget balls from MAD
27 OCEAN CONQUEROR

Possibly the best submarine simulation yet from new Rack-it

133 SOLOMON'S KEY

Brain-teasing arcade game from US GoW

134 XECUTOR

Colourful blasting action by Cybadyne for new Ace
130 MASK I

Gomk>strip licence produces a good game! Shock!

FULL INDEX

21 Athena Ocean

132 Bubble Bobbie Firebird

103 Dsrgonscrypt Venom Games

128 Death Yrish 3 Gremtin

Graphics
29 Draughts Genius Rack-It
28 Evening Star He'.v -.■

Football Director D&H
? 3 Grand Prix Simulator Code

92 The Guest Stephen

Wadsworth
129 Heist 2012 firebird Silver
1 6 How To Be A Complete

Bastard Virgin Games
1 6 Hysteria Softwa e Prgjecis
126 f,0aW2Firebjrd Silver

92 Labours Of Hercules Terry
Taytor

130 Afasfr/ Gremlin Gr-3oh:c.'..-
20 Meen Streak Mirrorsoft
17 Moonstrike Mirrorsoft
15 MotosUP-D

27 Ocean Conqueror Rack- It
124 sr*Mindgames
24 P1ex*rM.A.D.

122 Rapid Fire Mastertronic
103 Roundheads Lothtorlen

123 Samurai Trilogy Gremnn
Graphics

133 Solomon's Key US Gold

131 Sun StarCHL
22 WizbaU Ocean

134 X&cutor&oe

ADVERTISERS* INDEX

Activision

30,31,124,125129,131
Argus Press Software

Arfolesoft

Cascade

CRASH Mall Order

CRASH T-Shirts

Durell

E&J

Electronic Services

Elite Systems

Euromax

Gremlin Graphics

Imagine

I nce ntive Software

26, 87, 121

47

55

143

114

10

34

2,89

lie

14,52,97

4, 5, 100

33

KJC Games 110

Martech 20

Microprose 35, 102

Novagen 6
Oc«an 25, 37, 101, 147

Piranha 12, 13

Rainbird 90

Romantic Robot 107

Ro&sware 34

Telly Games 33
US Gold 32, 35, 42, 127, b/c

Verran 88

Video Vault 89,144

Virgin Games ©

8 CRASH October 1987

How to be a
COMPLETE

(Same

Ade is the sort of person who loosens the screws from the handles of disabled persons' toilets or markets

Space Shuttle Jigsaw Puzzles,

In the game he has successfully gate-crashed a yuppie party on the posh side of town and to succeed as

The Complete Bastard he must incapacitate all the guests bv the end of the party and light up each letter in the

phrase COMPLETE-BASTARD. He must also build up as many Bastard Points as he can by extremely offensive

behaviour,

Now you can play Ade and be a Complete and Utter Bastard in this arcade adventure with split-level screen

that's crammed full of absolutely tasteless humour.

'Anything this horrible is bound to sell millions/ Sinclair User,

Based cm the book of the same name© 1986 by Adrian Edmonson, Mark Leigh, Mike Lepine. A Virgin Book.

Amstrad screen.

Spectrum screen.

HOW TO BE A COMPLETE BASTARD is available from ell daring software
retailers, or directly from us under plain iwown wrapper.
Pieass make crossed cheques or pasta' onsets payable to Virgin Garne5 Ltd
arm send to Virgin Games Ltd, HA Vernon Yard, Poriobelio Road. London

PLEASE DO NOT POST COINS OR MONEY

□ Commodore 64/128 (£9.95, 3 Spectrum 4&128 (£7.95)
D Amstrad CPC cassette {£8951

Ninnf

Address .

Total money enclosed

X

If you're reading this at The PCW Show,
remember that bigger isn't always better and
there's plenty to play with at the Microfairs,

COKE ADDS LIFE

LONDON, 0610 fr'
pulls into Vicv

■■■g a half-full

'

'5 ftrs-a look uptfte road t

:ufturat Hall is dosed
'■ 4 the elders I
. more cvftee and coke, trying to
keep aw

The crowds were gathering t ~
24th ZX Microfair that ear

■

was being forced : i but

finally the- do- n

thefell

Trie ZX Mi:' trong.

sic Robot showed o
■-•" d stsnew Muil

r

FOOTHILL US Oil

SPORTS SIMULATIONS FROM E & J SOFTWARE (Established 3 Years)

...SKILL,. TACTICS... DECISIONS... STRATEGY SKILL. TACTICS ..

4 CLASSIC States Qames parted with GENUINE FfiATUfie5 w> mak* ?h«sra the most REALISTIC
H their kind

CRICKET MASTER : A SUPERB 51MU>
LATIQNOFONE OAV INTERNATIONAL CRICKET
- Captures 0m» AJmospbern and Drama nr me one
day game - Weather. Wicfcet & GutfieM Condi-
tio™, Batting & 8owh*j Tactics, Team Selection.
Fast, Spm S Me#um Pace Bcwlera, t Types ol Batsmen. SeWel Fwld Layout. 3 Skill Levels, Wides
Byes. No Ball, MiaJisrW, Dropped CalcUss etc etc.. Scoreboard, Batting & Bowling Artt?«Mj, Run Rate
Ron Single Opbwv, 3 Gam* Speeds * * Star Fealure - Complete Match Ovwvfew including Ball by

9aH tel i ' S C: uHary * * :-a-s M-™ Many Mae Features

Price £7.65 including a FREE Ml of CRICKET MASTER SCQRESHEETS
3 FOOTBALL MANAGEMENT GAMES ONLY £6.95 EACH

PREMIER II t A COMPREHENSIVE AND EXCITING LEAGUE GAME Can you handle a* of
She*- Ptay AH Teams Home & Away Transfer Market thai aH&ws you io buy any planar in league/sell
your (Aryars to any other learn, Full Team and Substitute Stfeefe&n. Malch Injuries. Match Suteb-
txitons, NamwJ Jj, Retarded Goal Scorers, Team Morale (all teams), Translw Demands. Injury Time,
FmanqW Prp&hjrsis, Match Attendances. Bank loans, 7 SW» levels Managers SaJasy, Continuing
Seasons. Job Oners o» Dismissal based on your perlormance, Printftf Option. Save Game and MORE'

EUROPEAN II : A SUPERB EUROPEAN STYLE COMPETJTK3N - Enjoy the atn»seh«r« or
European Cup Ties' - Home A Away i«g$. FuH Penalty Snoot-ow iwnrt SUDDEN DEATH | 2
Substitutes Mowed, Full Team And Substitute Selection Away Goals Count Double, fixlra T*ne, 7
Skill Levels, Disciplinary Table Printer Option. Save Game. EUROPEAN W incftidis a comprehensive
T«d Mtleh Swnulalrae with these GREAT FEATURES - Maith Timer Mamed & Recorded Goal
Scows, Comers. Free Kicks, Goal Times. Iniunes, Bookings Qisnftowod -Goate, F«ury Time Penal-
ise, Serrimg Oirand MOREI

* SPECIAL FEATURE - transfer your PREMIER H VMitning Side Into EUROPEAN » *
Both these GREAT games can b» played separately w as oompar»Qn games

WORLD CHAMPIONS : A COMPLETE AND EXCITING WORLD CUP SIMULATION Takes
you rrom ihe lira warm up IriendlieS Ihrough Ihe qualrtyinq stages and on to THE FINALS' - Stjuad o<
25 Players, Select Friendly Malcbes Oualrtying Round. 2 Substitutes Allowed", DsoipfcnarY Taofe,
Sated Tout Opponents, Pwyws gain experience/caps as competition progresses, £Wr* T«no, Ponalty
Shoo(-OuJ, Quarter Final Group. 7 Sk* Levels, Printef Ophan. Save Garr*, WOFttD CJ-IAMPtOMS
InrAidBe a comprehensive wm.mateh simulation Goal Times, eookinsa Injuries., NaffiedRecOrded
Goat Soxefs, Injury Time, Match Ctock. Sendmg Otf. Penalties. Comers. Free Kicks, and MORE I

All games lor ANY 48K SPECTRUM, supplied on

tape with full instructions and price include P & P.

GREAT VALUE - Any 2 Games Deduct £2,00 from

total

SUPERB VALUE - Any 3 Games Deduct £3.00

from total

FANTASTIC VALUE Buy all 4 Games Deduct

£6.00 from total

These games are available by MAIL ORDER ONLY
vis our First Crass Service. All are available for
IMMEDIATE DESPATCH by 1st Class Post
and are securely packed.

jceson page 120], Sixwc-
the Swift Disc

•- ■ ■ ■

thougi aemed

floor.
Logic '

a fiver
i. * shed,
at the--

: has a
dual drive aod.RS232/Ceni

:
stand and so

hipectr.eCc.iy
sold a new ROM for the .<
mates

Fan,' --ingjry

Spect". "dst

And the QL ,
sttowrng that old compute^ die tiard.
Mind you, new computers start early
sets
group already set up al the
The rest of the fair was
rnaik'T'- <2$lor

■ ■ each as well as hardware'and
a got The Great Space
■
So the

". ?,ood day o-j:
a cheap way oftoppingupyour game's

1800 >s. coach, re>- :

PAUL EVANS

V.

From: E & J SOFTWARE, Room 3. 37 Westmoor Road, ENFIELD,
Middlesex EN3 7LE

y.LAtv

FOCUS MAGAZINES, puds i?

Your Computer ^and Sinclair QL
•r chased Popular Gompu
_ .T Update fr' ■■■

: to make the
■". rrg weekly v,.-. .
Says Rlcbafd Hease, Managing'

innme'

■I'Judng. I've i
i
and now

Hease isnotexpe
make •:- to Popular

Computing Weekly, which was

', ago after
he way
fagaane locks,' ha said,

c's a sort of homecommg
for Brendan Gore, presently M;?i

:

of -Popular
Cdnptit

TONY THOMPSON

DOMARK'S BID

FOR SWINDLE

CASH

THERE WAS «r the

a game based on
i y Jeffrey Archer's i

jchan

wonder whether ht

all, handsome
story.

Tie-

AMSTRAD CUTS +3 PRICE

THE SPECTRUM -3 wIUk reduced
te £199 from September 23- the day
Trie PCWShc v

season,

ong-running
industry

rtfgjh price. (Amstrad's rflov

mo.nt.h was predicted, by CRfiSH in an
Issue 43 analysis,)

• so said that
i TV ad
boost ! - '- el further support

for the machine with its '
drive should come from Romantic
Robot's Mu'i:.:- ?0),

\
be transferred onto

10 CRASH October 1987

THE GREEKS HAD
A WORD FOR IT

Well, two: computer journalism. Hunter 5 sets off for Crete (en route to Olympia), spends long hours
chasing the elusive exclusive and finally gets snapped up by a piranha which turns out to be a
bear . . .

ONLY THE ENGLISH weather can

n? week from being so hot
your skin goes red and peels at the
slightest exposure to this shivering,
greya.utumnJ Jt" s at times like this your
mind turns to thoughts of somewhere
hot - tropical even. And no. I doi't
mean The FCWShow! We'll come to
that later.
Nflr am I talking about Bangkok.

IS where I should be at this vary
moment in the company of a pack of
jet-lagged journos out on the spree -
courtesy of System 3, which was
looking for the only place in the world
not to have heard of Andy Wright to
launch its Thai-boxing simulation
Bangkok Knft*

was down for this last jaunt
till I pulled out, if not quite at the
eleventh hour certainly some time after

At I en, and ; m sure you'll look
as a gross dereliction of duty
when f tell you the reason. I tried all I
couSd to provide a substitute but my
eratwhUe compatriot, Leslie B, is still
dti by a fanatical
sect of Dragon 32-owners somewhere
on the Cardiff/Beirut border.

i istead I'm off to Crete, home of
the Minotaur and a lot more old bull
besides, taking a rather bei r
honeymoon. After all, it's a full four
weeks since the wedding and I reckon
Madde deserves some sort of reward
for putting up with me so long. For the
next fortnight the last thing I'll be
thinking of is software - because rt
seems that for the last four weeks
software is allYve thought of!

We got married on the Friday - and
I can heartily recommend this age-old
institution to anyone considering it -
and spent the weekend relaxing. Then
on Monday morning seven kinds of
demonsbroke loose, the phone started
ringing at 9,30 and it djdntstop all day
Since then life has been unbelievably
frantic, hectic and all-round wali-
crawlingjy crazy!

Which brings us to the topic I was
trying to follow this month, before I
somehow got waylaid, You see, I

:t I might talk about what it's like
being a fr eelance journalist. Try to get

i ut, as it were. Only I 'm not sure
that I can capture the sheer lunacy of
spending two-and-a-half hours on trains
to conduct a 90-minute interview which
has to be sent to Ludlow by Red Star
the next day!

Most of this panic Is for THE GAMES
MACHINE, which Is going to be so up-
to-the-minute that Graeme Kidd will still
be printing copies with the Newsfiefd
John Bu II outfit on the stand at The PCW
Shiiw,

It's exhausting, chasing exclusive
after exclusive, knowing that for every
extra minute you spend taking a peek
at a Christmas game you're going to be
late for your next appointment . . .

Which is why it was a drop of calming
oil on the troubled waters when the
phone rang and it was piranha-keeper
Helen Holland, wondering if she could
take me to lunch, For a moment I
wondered what London Zoo's
aquarium could want with me . . ,
maybe I'm the only thing in cap!
more voracious than those evil smiil-
ftined gourmets!

Then I realised Helen is PR person
For Piranha software. Too many months
in this game and the circuits become
somewhat fried ... but the promise of
a nice calm meal with no hard sell has
thing effect. Aisa, Helen hails from
Bolton, and we Northerners must -stick
together.

Piranha is about to move out of Its
present broom cupboard into
something more spacious, and about
time too. I've heard of concentrated
activity, but the onlv way you could get
more wart; going on in that room would
be to pump out the air! Still, there was
room for a monitor at least and Helen
sat me down in front of it

Okay, so the Piranha people have
made a Boo Boo, They've also mafl e a
Yogi and some extremely irate
picnickers. Yes, the game was an early
version of Yog Bear - sadly not the
Spectrum one - and it looks rather
addictive,

Bod Boo's been kidnapped so i ; 'sfiig
Bear to the rescue, teaping streams,
dodging snakes and running from
.campers across 200-odd screens.

y on the Commodore the
graphics are everythingyou could wish
for; let's hope they can capture those
cartoon sprites on the Speccy,

The company's making quite a thing
of cartoon and comic he-ins. As well as
Judge Death, they've signed up none
other than the legendary Roy Of The
Rovers - the golden boy who's never
needed handball to win a match'

Helen told me about visiting
',. the publishers of Roy's
exploits. She was greeted by one of the
big cheeses there, who proceeded to
apotogl.se for Roy's absence.

But away they go to lunch with Helen
thinking no more about this cute little
touch.

After their repast they return to the
offices where big cheese comes to her
with an apology: Roy nipped in and was
sorry that he couldn't stay, but he
signed a book for her. 'Oh aye,' thinks
Helen a woman who recognises a
footballing wind-up when she meets
one {she's obviously seen Bolton
Wanderersplay!). She notices a couple
of pictures of Roy. ' Could he sign these
for me too?" she asks, alt innocently,

What follows goes to prove that the
world of comics is even weirder than
the world of computing. The big cheese
shouts 'Hang on a minute, Roy', then
is out of the office to see if he can
catch him Catch him he does, returning
with two signed photos for a totally
befuddled Helen. After all, Roy is just a
fictional character - isn't he?

Perhaps not (or is it just that

madness is catching?), because Helen
hopes he'll be making a personal
appearance at The Few Show, along
with a big. blue Berk - and she wasn't
refernng to me* but to the hero of
Through The Trapdoor.

Helen's strangest mission for the
show was a raid on M&S to buy two
dozerr pairs of Yogi Bear boxer shorts!
What strange images of bizarre orgies
went through the assistant's mind as
she cashed them up? 24 men, stark
naked apart from the shorts, with Helen
i n Jellystone Ranger's uniform sp
them on to greater pleasure with the
promise of pickemick baskets? is thus
the sort of work a nice Bottoman lass
d be doing?

This is Helen's first PCW Show, and
she's sensibly booked a holiday to
follow, She'll need It. The only way to
survive those five days of hell and
horror at Olympia is to have the
promise of a long rest afterwards.
Either that or follow the Minson advice
and stay in a state of temporary
psychosis, developing into comatose
babbling i the Sunday,

1 know that by the end of the first day
my feet will ache, my voice will be
hoarse and my wrist will fee) like it's
been playing Hyper-Sports nonstop
from so much pumpingof the flesh. But
would I miss it? Not on your life. Pain,
agony, crazmess - yes, that sort of
sums up freelance journalism, And I
gu&ss that's why I love It!

- OUZO
HUNTER S MINSQft

CRASH October 1987 11

YOGI BEAR

Hey Hey Hey!

Are you smarter than

the average bear? You'll

need to be to get out of this

one. bog-boos been bearnapped

and must be rescued before

hibernation time. Hunters, mooses,

vultures, bees, caverns, geysers as well

as good old Ranger Smith are

determined to stop you!

spectrum Commodore Amstrad
Cassettes E9.95 Discs £14.95

4

Berk is back!

Now you can actually

explore the dark and nasty

regions for yourself as you try

to rescue your friend Boni,

trapped in the murky depths.

Along the way all sorts of creepy

critters will try to spook you in exciting

arcade action!

Spectrum commodore Amstrad

cassette £8.95 Discs £14.95

.IX&i

FLUNKY

The Royal

Family as they have

never been seen before*

This Is your chance to work at

Buck House — as a menial

manservant. Your job is to cater to

the residents' every whim, but you'll

need cunning, strong nerves and quick

reactions if you are going to avoid a

nasty end.

spectrum commodore Amstrad
cassettes £9.95 Discs £14.95
Coming soon for
the Atari ST.

•n?

i

A

I ;:.■ -,:■;.!
£3$

MMMM

weichester

Rovers is under threat

of closure from greedv

property developers. On the

eve of a special celebrity match

organ ised to save the club, Roys

team mysteriously disappears.

unless he rescues them he may end

up facing the opposition alone!

Spectrum Commodore Amsr
Ca 1.95

Megacitv is

being terrorised by the

Dark Judges — Death

himself and his cronies Fear,

Fire and Mortis. They are

dedicated to putting an end to life

itself. As Judge Anderson you stand

alone. Only your psychic powers and

blazing gun can save Megacitv!

spectrum commodore Amstraa
cassettes £9.95 Discs £14.95

m

■

y

Powerful,

manoeuvrable and

eadly, the Gunboat under

your command carries the

most lethal waterborn weaponry

to data Deep in the complex maze

of fjords and canal systems are your

targets — huge submarine pens. Your

mission — to seek and destroy!

Spectrum Commodore Arnstrad
Cassettes £8.95 Discs £13.95

eiease schedules, please contact Helen Holland at the
address below. Piranha games are available from all good
stockists or, in case of difficulty direct from
Helen Holland, Piranha, 4 Little Essex street.
London WC2R 3FL Tel: 01-836 6€

.•^.#ft* ;

Strap on your famous
475 WILDEY
MAGNUM, turn your-
self into a one man
fighting force armed
with pump action
shotgun, machine g
and rocket launcher.
Now turn the tables on
the punks and cree
who certainly knoi
to dish out the viole..
but may not be so good at
being on the receiving end.

SPECTRUM 48/I28K

Cassette £7.99

MSX Cassette £7.99

CBM 64/128 &AMSTRA
Cassette £9. 99 Disk £14. 99

^

DEATH WISH 3

The big screen classic, in

which modern day vigilante

Paul Kersey wreaks his own

form of revenge on the scum

and filth that terrorise the

streets of modern day New

York. For too long the gangs

have run wild, un-
... ....

_ks and violations of
ocent citizens.
Muggings and robberies
have become a daily
feature of city life. So
when the chief of police
turns a blind eye you
decide to take over
where the law left off.

W* v

♦ •♦

l0 C*rvetS"**

*dw» sl

^.TeU^tS**

f986 £*"."«*

pro*** 1 "*" 1 '

jgiri*^

MOTOS

Producer: M.A.O,
Retail price: £2,99
Authors: Binary Design

After a hard day flying a
spacecraft, the last thing
you want to do is fend off a
succession of Jostling alien jerks.
But that's what you've got to do in
Motos if you're not to be sent
toppling from a series of grids in
space. Stray too close to the
platform edge, and any unfriendly
nudge you receive can end one of
your five lives.

So you'd better do it to them
before they do it to you. Using your
multidirectional capabilities you
can help your attackers over the
edge with a deft push or two. And
you earn points for each globular
geek, boisterous bee or overfed
orb that you pack off.

You can also increase your
score by carefully nuzzling points
beacons toward the edge of the
void - and protect yourself by
collecting features such as
strength and jumping power.

The jump feature can be used to
leap to platform islands separate
from the main grid. Think before
you leap, though; the weight of
your landing cracks the delicate

J NICK

iat a colourful and wetl-presented game Motos is! The mono/
colour choice is useful, and the 128 tunes enhance the game
even more. Some of the aliens on higher levels are fantastic,
though diff icutt to destroy. The only thing wrong with Motos Is the
way it stows down when more aliens arrive on the screen. Motos
should appeal to anyone with a sense of pure fun. "

► Push a few aliens into the deep ravine of space - but don't forget to collect
the power pill!

MIKE

" Motos is realty fun, the sort of game thai needs absolutely no
instructions or story line to make it neatly enjoyable. The colour
is excellent, the sound pleasing; it only ail budget games were
this good ... "
78%

component squares of the grid,
and if you hit them again they'll
disintegrate, leaving you to an
unpleasant, deadly fate in space.

A feature can't be used on the
screen where it's collected - it has
to be saved for later screens. And
of course features also use up
energy . . ,

The grids across which you

MAD. but true: the weird Motos, licensed from a Namco arcade game

J BEN L

" Why on earth should
Mastertronic want to license
such an obscure coin-op?
Still, Motos isn't bad - it's
well -presented, and there
are lots of colourful screens
and pleasant 1 28K tunes. But
many of the later levels are
too easy, and a game without
challenge is about as much
good as an ice-cream stand
in the Arctic. Motos Is
instantly playable, but
equally forgettable. "

skitter are eventually attacked by
rains of shooting stars and riddled
with holes. You can push the
pestering extraterrestrials into the
gaping chasms - but remember
you can go the same way.

Motos is a conversion from the
Namco arcade game.

COMMENTS I

Joysticks: Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: simple but well-
defined

Sound: reasonable FX. 128
tune

Options: choice of mono or
Colour displ
General rating; Motos
strange licence - but it's
addictive and fun

Presentation 79%

Graphics

Payability 80%

Addictive qualities 78%

OVERALL 74%

CRASH October 1987 15

Producer: Software

Projects

Retail price: £7.95

Authors: Special FX

Somewhere in the mists of
time and space, someone is
changing our future by
altering our past. An extinct
primeval: entity is being
summoned through the barriers of
: 1 1 n e by a fanatical sect whose aim
is to disrupt the future balance of
power.

You are the sole survivor of a
once-elite time corps, and you
have been summoned to destroy
this evil threat. The battle takes
place in a once-thriving small town
in the middle of nowhere - where
there's a big problem. The locals

7 WICK

" Hysteria is the right name
for this game, it's so
frustrating when you get
savagely killed. The game
layout is very similar to
Ghosts V Goblins and the
colour scrolling works quite
well despite occasional
clash. The gradually
disappearing bust which
shows your remaining
strength is a neat idea, like
the icons. Hysteria is a superb
game with plenty of depth. "
76%

" Graphically superb and
well-animated, with some
beautifully detailed

characters, Hystena is an
addictive and playable game.
The screen display seems
well thought-out: there's
never any confusion,
whether you want to know
your energy level, how many
more pieces to collect, or
whatever. Though Hysteria
doesn't offer a long-term
challenge, it'll certainty
provide a lot of frantic fun for
a while. "

80%

aren't ali that keen on time warriors
and time lords, and they tend to
get a mite upset at the sight of the
multicoloured scarf and the police
box.

But your mission is essential,
and among your heavy armour and
weapons you have a revolutionary
energy-conversion kit that will turn
harmless mortal objects such as
lemons and worms into
ultrapowerful weapons. (Some of
the weapons don't last very long,
though.)

The evil conspirators can be
unveiled by destroying hostile
busts - different ones on every
level - which sometimes fire at

► Words fail us as another huge end-of -level monster approaches . , .

you. Destroying a bust earns you a
piece of a special jigsaw puzzle;
collect six pieces of the jigsaw and
an evil being becomes visible. This

► From the strange primeval mists of time and space comes a horrifying threat
- sounds like Cam on a Monday morning

terrible entity is then forced to
attack you - and this is your
chance to weaken the monstrosity
and repel it before moving on to
another era and another enemy.

IbenL

" At first I was well put off by
i's resemblance to
Basically it's like the
Ocean game tarted up with a
few extra features; the
graphical style, the sound
and the feel are all unoriginal.
But the gamepfay has been
changed, if not for the better,
and Hysteria S s good fun -and
probably wilt be till I
complete It, "

7»%

COMMENTS L

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston,

Sinclair

Graphics: well-defined and

colourful

Sound: a couple of tunes and

perfunctory FX

Options: definable keys

General rating; a good

Cobraesque game

Presentation

82%

Graphics

81%

Payability

77%

Addictive qualities

67%

OVERALL

78%

16 CRASH October 1987

M(0::M

Producer: Mirrorsoft
Retail price: £7.95
Authors: Binary
Innovations

You're out for revenge after
Sir Humphrey Bogus,
inventor of the digital tea
bag, said something rather
unpleasant about your

grandmother. Seated in a
multidirectional space craft, you
begin your cruise of death over a
vertically scrolling lunar surface,

This moon world is encrusted
with craters and enemy bases
from which come a stream of
invulnerable blast molecules.
These circular particles compete
with numerous other destructive
features such as light bulbs,
bombs with rotating tails, and

NICK

" The graphics are fantastic,
getting better as you
progress from level to level,
and the animation of seme of
the nasties is well done and
very smooth. The general
idee is very similar to
Ligntforce games; the main
object is to destroy
everything. The only thing
wrong with Moonstrike is that
your ship moves too slowly
and so avoiding bombs
becomes very frustrating.
But it's an ace game. "

90%

spinning boulders to blast your
fragile space vehicle into
insignificance, doing more

JbenI

41 When smooth, well-presented, vertically scrolling shoot-'em-
ops such as Lightforce first appeared on the Speccy I was
interested. But now, after a year, l r m sick of them because there's
been no great improvement in quality or gameplay. Originality (or
unoriginalrty} aside, Moonstrike is boring; it's a little too difficult
so there's rarely any sense of achievement, and rt plays far too
slowly to be appealing. But the graphics, the game's redeeming
feature, are excellent: the characters are large and beautifully
animated and the attention to detail on the landscape Is amazing.
There are a few nice touches - look out for the Mona Lisa! if you
haven't got a game of this type on the shelf already Moonstrike is
reasonable, but others are just that bit more playable ..."

87%

► Clear granny's name and launch into Moonstrike

► More digital tea-bag trickery

damage than Arthur Daley could
ever repair.

Approaching hazards must be
avoided, or destroyed; and lunar
bases can be taken out by
accurate fire from your blazing
blasters before they send too
many obnoxious weapons in your
direction.

Wipe out these perils and you
earn points - but W they pierce your
craft's vulnerable protective skin,
you lose one of your three fives.

Watch out for the Mona Lisa on
the third level (though even she
c^ have her enigmatic smirk
re/rtoved by a sudden
decapitation) and deal some
irrevocable blows to the smug-
iooklng smilies (y'know, those
horrible happy badges that ageing
hippies wear),

Moonstrike is the first game to
use Movieload, a system

developed by Mirrorsoft which
displays changing text and
pictures while the main program ia
loading.

JmckyL

" The Movieloading of
Moonstrike uses humour
reminiscent of The Hitch
Hiker's GuWe To The Galaxy,
but it's just as well there's a
normal loader too; the new
technique takes time and
after you've seen it once or
twice the hlfarity begins to
wear of*. The game itself is a
competent variation on the
traditional shoot-'em-up,
and the peculiar aliens such
as bomb-spitting flowers
and killer fight bulbs brighten
up what could otherwise
have been tedious. "

73%

^comments!.

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston,

Sinclair

Graphics: monochromatic ~

but beautifully detailed, and

large

Sound: good tune and typical

blasting FX

General rating: a super shoot-

'em-up with a humorous edge

Presentation #6%

Graphics 86%

Payability 72%

Addictive qualities 68%
OVERALL 77%

CRASH October 1987 17

■

j ffjfegqgi

HOI/I/ TO BE 4
COMPLETE BASTARD

J MICK L

Producer: Virgin Games
Retail price: £7.95
Authors: Sentient
Software

Are YOU a complete
bastard? You can try your
worst in this adaptation of
Adrian Edmondson's Virgin book.
With all the decorum of a herd of
psychopathic wildebeest, you
manage to gate-crash a fwightfutly
yuppie party and proceed to wreak
havoc.

A split screen shows two views
of every room you enter; either can
be rotated to show a further
aspect.

This offers you the great
opportunity of thoroughly
searching other people's furniture.
Behind the closed doors of
cupboards, units and wardrobes
lurk everyday items that in the right
hands — your hands - can cause
aggravation, irritation and
mutilation to any unfortunate in the

JbenL

" Coming from the people who did Tai-Pan, one of the most
serious games this year, this is a shock - and it should have been
much more appealing. There are a few nice features, like
Bastavision, but though they're neat they don't add much to the
gameplay. How To Be A Complete Bastard is along the lines of Jack
The Nipper, with tots of added nausea and bad taste - it's fun to
play for a bit, but I doubt you'll come back to it "

65%

vicinity. Any two objects can be
carried at once and examined at
will, but how you can use them
depends on how drunk you are.

Your body is one great factory
of noxious gases, fuelled by what
you eat and measured by a
Fartometer; these fumes,
delivered with all the grace you can
muster, clear rooms of guests -
fast. {Take care near naked flames ,
though.) You are also linked to a
Smellometer registering a general
level of BO which, for a true
bastard, should be high.

J MIKE L

" Such a lot of this depends on your opinion of Ade Edmondson's
humour. If, like me, you quite enjoy it, then the game should
appeal, but there's a lot in it that could easily offend. And if CRL's
Dracula, not a particularly nasty game, carried a 15 certificate
then surely this should be subject to certification too. Still, the
graphics are quite good, the text is usually quite funny, and
though the jokes stop being funny after 10,000,000 goes the
game remains reasonably playable. "

Drink is readily available: extra-
strong lager intoxicates you
quickly, as shown on the
Drunkometer, but if you drink too
much the display begins to spin
wildly.

Check your water leveis on the
Weeometer and go- go go while
you can. Leave things too long and
an unthoughtful Nigel or
Samantha might have occupied

" Adrian Edmondson's book
is brilliant, and so is this
game, The graphics are well-
defined and the colour is
good, though limited. The
way you can rotate both the
top and the bottom screens
is very confusing, but
essential "

87%

the loo. But you could go
elsewhere, couldn't you?

Limitless supplies of coffee can
sober you up: so can medicine.
Other liquids should be avoided if
you want to stay alive!

The yuppie guests provide the
ideal opportunity for you to
engage in highly undesirable
conversations. Push, them hard
against obstructions and they'll
find it hard to resist your charms,
offering information and providing
the opportunity for a bit more
mayhem.

Each of the unpleasant actions
you commit earns you Bastard
points, but other things are

considered very girlie, and must
be avoided if you want to keep that
total high. If your unpleasant
activities force the yuppie guests
into leaving, letters making up the
phrase 'COMPLETE-BASTARD'
light up. The game is finished when
all of these letters are illuminated,
by which time you'll have the place
to yourself.

_J COMMENTS /

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston,
Sinclair

Graphics: good
monochromatie playing area
with decorative surrounds
Sound: girlie opening tune,
and spot FX

General rating: humorous and
generally good, but perhaps
not much testability

Presentation

Graphics

Playability

Addictive qualities

OVERALL 73%

1 8 CRASH October 1 987

DAR

*«♦.

^H*H:

14.95

pirn all good stockists

TRANSFER ZONE

DEFENCE MECHANISM TUNNEL

CAPTURE AREA

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1 ***

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FROM 4000 AD

A program by

Featuring REFLEX

Spectrum 48/128 Cassette £8 99
Amstrad CPC Cassette £9 99 Disc £14 99
Commodore 64/128 Cassette £9 99 Disc £12 99

Produced by « m

Produced by

martech

Martech is the registered trade mark of Martech Games Limited,

Martech House, Bay Terrace, Pevensey Bay, East Sussex BN24 6EE

TRADE ENQUIRIES WELCOME. PHONE (0323) 768456 TELEX: 878373 Martec G

Available from all leading software retailers or order today by mail.
Prices include postage and packing plus VAT.

Sjalne :C'i FJeetw*y Publications 1987

i*w

ATHENA

Producer: Ocean
Retail price: £7.95
Author: Andrew Deakin

Voluptuous Athena, goddess
of wisdom - worra woman.
Tired with the everyday life
of cleaning her heavenly home, our
bikini beauty decides it's about
time she got involved in a bit of the
old heroic dealings. So off she sets
to battle her way through six levels
of forest, ice, land, sea, sky and
hell.

Our heroine is no dumb blonde
- this girl can jump, duck and run
through these strange multilevel

ImckyI

"Athena is definitely not for
the arcade novice - it's an
excruciating challenge to
beat, through level after level
of madcap violence. I needed
all Athena's 15 fives to
survive the first three levels!
Graphically good and
addictive, Athena is

worthwhile for fans of the
original and alt hardened
arcade players. "

Thick

"Athena could have been
very good - with rigorous
playtesting. But as it stands
the game is unplayable and
unappealing. The graphics,
small but neat and nicely
animated, go a long way to
redeeming it, though they do
flicker occasionally. The
sound is also well above
average* with loads of good
tunes and atmospheric
effects crammed in. But
you'll have to look elsewhere
for a decent heroine ... '"

60%

arenas, facing perilous odds as
bizarre beasties attack her. Peanut
men advance, demons close in,
apples fly through the air, and
armadillos swing into action.

By giving a good kicking to the
first bad guys she meets, Athena
can gather their weapons and,
armed with perhaps an axe or a
ball and chain . move on with a little
more confidence. She scores
points for every creature she
thumps to death.

Our dynamic damsel's
weaponry can also be used to
demolish the rocks and blocks

" Wowl Athena has all the qualities you expect of a good arcade
adventure, though it's a bit too hard. The shading is excellent,
and there are some really lovable characters - 1 liked the hooded
ghost and the big-nosed ogre. This is simply an excellent game. "

W%

► Pin no soppy girlie, I'm Athena and I'm about to shove a monster off this
mortal coil. , .

that make up the landscapes. This
reveals some useful objects for
Athena's arsenal - and some
deadly ones, so look out, Athena
can also collect wings and fins to
speed heron her dangerous way,
But the beasts reduce Athena's

life force {you knew there was a
catch), and she has only five lives.
To restore her vitality, the
curvaceous fighter can destroy
roses, which release collectable
hearts.

The g oddess with gumption can
leave each world'by battling past a
large and mighty sentinel, but
wimps are advised to seek the
other exit And hurry - on each
level a time countdown limits our
heroines's scope for slothful
perambulation.

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston,

SinGfaif

Graphics: small, neat, but

moooch re i.-
Sound: lots of imaginative
effects and ti

Options: if you die on one of
the first five levels, you can
eontl nue from the same
with a new set of five live
clock carries on, though} - up
to 1 5 extra lives can be

-o mis way
General rating: a challenging
conversion with plenty
of depth

Presentation
Graphics
Payability
Addictive qualities
OVERALL

CRASH October 1987 21

W'hZ'B'A'L'L

you were

magical cat

JJ Wizard with a
L «f on a pfanet filled with col-
ourful landscapes you'd be jolly
fed up if someone tried to turn It
Into monochrome, wouldn't you?
Of course you would, it's like sud-
denly being told your Amiga has
: ire clash.

And that's exactly how Wfz Feels
when Zark and his unpleasant
horde of helpers bleach his colour-
ful Wteworiri

So, with a spherical WizbaSI
space transporter to help him, Wiz
begins to eliminate the Invading
colour- blind hordes. When the
game begins, the transporter can
spin to the left or right and bounce
through the now drab Wlzwortd.

As Wiz progresses, he encoun-
ters lethal aliens: waves of crabs.
diamonds and murtiarme<l
dies, all threatening poor Wiz's
three lives. These creatures can be
destroyed, for points, h\
transporter. Many of mem reveal
green, smiling pearl faces when
Wiled; by touching these faces Wiz
collects extra capabilities, includ-
ing supa-beams and blazers, pro-
tective sprays, smart bombs,
shields, and a thruster and anti-
grav powers to give him more con-
trol of the bouncing transporter.

Producer: Ocean
Retail price: £7.95

22 CRASH October 1987

But probably the most impor-

iin'Q for our crumbly warlock

IsCatelite, the magical feline.

Wizworld is composed of three

its: red, green and blue, to

restore the brightness that Zark

" Wlzball is one of the most
playable games I've ever
seen, despite some trivial
bugs. The controls are per-
fect, though they're incredi-
bly difficult to get to grips
with (the instructions are
less than clear, too)! The
smooth-moving graphics
are strikingly original, and
the colour clash doesn't
affect them too much. This
is one hell of a game, so go
geddtt. "

92%

and hts mob have drained away,
Wiz must burst-floating colour bub-
bles. As droplets from them fail
earthward, Catelite can gather
them up.

As he does so, each droplet Is
placed in one of three empty caul-
drons - one cauldron for each col-
our in the magic land. When a caul-
dron is full , one colour of Wizworld

graphics are fan-
tastic and well-defined,
and the higher levels reveal
more and more delights -
including wild assortments
of aliens. And the bouncing
Wizball looks like a cross
between a Critter and
Bobby Bearing! There are
some decent spot FX, and
a good 128 tune. Though
the controls are difficult at
first, it gets more playable
and rewarding as you prog-
ress - an ace game. "
MICK 90%

comes back to We; Wiz and Cate-
lite can then concentrate On
gathering the remaining colours.

Completing a colour also allows
Wiz to v«sit his W.
and gather yet more unbelievable
powers.

.-.•all is a classic. The
graphics are brilliant,
despite some colour clash.
and sound is excellent on
the 128s (but a bit limited
on the 48s). At first the
bouncing is difficult to con-
troi - but once it's mastered
and you've picked up a few
of the right icons, Wizball
becomes one ol the best
shoot-'em-ups I've played
for ages. It's so polished it
shines! "

93%

When all three colours have
been collected. Wizworld 15
restored H ry, and Wiz

and his cat can go home to toast
the defeat of Zark with the wizard r s
favourite drink - a well-earned
glass of bat's bowel and hemlock
fizz. Yum.

'COMMENTS

Joysticks:

Kempston. Sii'dair
Graphics: weird, wc
and well-defined despite
some attribute clash
Sound: some pieasa

General rating: a tew control
problems hardly detract from
entertaining and playable

Presentation 87%

Graphics 88%

Payability
Addictive qualities 92%
OVERALL 92%

GRAND PRIX
SIMULATOR

Producer: Code Masters
Retail price: E1 .99
Authors: the Oliver Twins

Your stomach's full of
butterflies but now it's too
late, you 're sitting in a Grand
Prix racing car and the green start
fight is just about to flash. With the
strident countdown still rumbling
in your ears and the smell of
scorched rubber and the tang of
hot oil burning in your rtosfrils, you
blast away from the start.

In this simulation, your car must
be taken successfully around a
series of 14 circuits, shown in
bird's-eye view. As you carefully
accelerate and decelerate around
the track, negotiating bends and
avoiding obstacles such as
bridges, careful steering fs
essential - misjudge a comer and
you could go spinning off the
tarmac.

A clock shows each car's lap
time, and after the race you're
ranked as a "fair' driver or a
master.

When Grand Prix Simulator was
released for the Amstrad CPC this
spring, Activision alleged a breach
of copyright: the Code Masters
game was too similar to the coin-
op Super Sprint, Activision said,
pointing out that ft owned the
license to that arcade game.

this Is the game for you because
playing Grand Prix Simulator
WONT show you what it's like.
The graphics are uttratrash,
except for a bit of decent
drawing on the borders; colour
is badly-used because all the
racetracks are mostly green and
there's colour clash when you
go near a barrier. Between
games it sounds as if Donald
Sinden has been bribed into
doing some digitised speech.
This won't be worth buying,
even to the car- racing
enthusiast "
NICK 46%

9" I'd listened to too much hype
about Grand Prix Simulator - now
I'm very disappointed. The game
Is fiddly to control and has littte of
the addictivity of good arcade
racing games. The characters are
small - because the 'car window '
screen is. But the speech is OK, //
not quite up to I, Ball II standard!
And I wouldn't be surprised to see
this shoot to the top of the budget
charts very soon - fafce your own
risks ..."

won 41%

• " Grand Prix Simulator is
terrible. If you can actually find
your car - not an easy task,
especially on a badly-tuned TV, as
it's only about four pixels long -
then there's about ten minutes of
interest here. There's certainly
none of the addictiveness of a
good racing game. "

MIKE 38%

• " Ever wondered what it's like
to race in a Grand Prix? If not,

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston,

Sinclair

Graphics: colourful but small and

poorly-animated

Sound: good tune, but the car

engine sounds" like it's about to

sieze up

Options; two simultaneous

players, definable keys

General rating: a below-average

race-driving simulation

Presentation

Graphics 25%

Play ability

Addictive qualities

OVERALL

Vrrroooom! fleeing round the Grand Prix track - watch out for blood on the
roadf

CRASH October 1987 23

Producer: M.A.D.
Retail price: £2.99
Authors: Paul Margreaves

Long before a Reliant Robin
had ever broken down on
the M25, ttie Miracle
Engineers had planned and built
the crystal roads that led across
the planet Plexar .

Now the Miracle Engineers are
long dead and the primitive
Plexarians have taken their place.
Unlike their sophisticated
predecessors, they are a
superstitious race who send
victims along the crystal roads to
appease mysterious deities,
Few return from this voyage - but
as a chosen 'volunteer', can you
survive it?

Your journey is made up of two
stages: the crystal roads
themselves, and the diamond

" 'Wow, what pretty
graphics,' I thought as the
irrtro screen zinged onto the
monitor, Ms the gameplay as
good as the cosmetics?'
Yes, Plexar Is very playable,
and despite the obvious
similarities to Trailbiazer it
kept me glued to the screen
for a good while. Control is
easy, and the gameplay is
just frustrating enough to
make you want to complete
just one more level , . , "

82%

towers where the roads meet and

interconnect, joining continent
with continent.

Each road consists of a series of
interconnected squares, some of
which contain lethal things that
can end your life on the spot-
Others merely offer the unusual,
useful or hindering, sending you
shooting sideways, taking you on
a helicopter ride, propelling you
forward across dangerous
squares, or making you skitter

J RICKY L

** Bearing some similarities - weli, quite a lot, really - to
Trailbiazer, Plexar is playable but frustrating. And it goes beyond
Trail blazer with some features to vary the predictability of your
journey (transporters, for instance). Plexar can become quite
tricky when the track is upside down, but it all adds to the
excitement! "

80%

► Blazing the trails in the third section of Ptexar

randomly between squares.

If you've successfully navigated
this roadway without too much
mishap, you enter one of the
diamond towers. These are weird
places, full of complicated,
vertically scrolling mazeworks of
unidirectional conveyor belts,
areas which simply vanish now
and again, shivering colonies of
pulsing jellies and obstructive
walls.

And in the towers are found the
patrolling servicebots that drain
your energy at their every touch.
To protect your meagre reserves,
leap away from the approaching
mechanical embraces.

► Flex those ptexars and bounce off down the track

A peril port at the top left of the
screen changes colour and
signifies when danger is imminent.
Heed its warning welt if you want a
chance of survival - and never
forget that against all this is the
relentless countdown of the clock.

J ROBIN L

" On reading the instructions
of Plexar I was expecting a
run-of-the-mill maze variant.
I couldn't have been more
wrong! The graphics are
excellent, and though most
of the moving characters are
monochromatic the

colourful backgrounds

disguise this. Plexar is very
simple and instantly
playable, and it's surprising
such a simple game can be
so addictive. One of my
favourite features appears
on the later levels, where a
new dimension is added to
the game - not only is there a
tricky maze on the ground,
but there's also one above
you which has to be
navigated upside down! Yet
again MAO. has come up
with an outstanding game -
get it as soon as you can. "
90%

COMMENTS

I

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston,
Sinclair

Graphics: excellent; mainly
monochromatic, decorative
surroundings in colour
Sound: nothing inspiring
General rating: a neat and
enjoyable Trailblazer clone

Pre*
Grap 1

^tivequa:
OVERALL

24 CRASH October 1987

THE PATHWAYTO FEAR.

»

X

f

.the mime

' e SPECTRUM ..- 95 COMMODORE AMSTRAD

COMMODORE DISK AMSTRAD DISK £

in 6G ■ " ■ fatf^ -

111

1 rvfcf 1 1/

ll

REAL ARCADE ACTION AT ITS BEST!

The year is 2379s Earth's vast resources
are finally running oul (aQuinl). You must
bridge the path to Hib much needed
matter Buppllas, using three
on-purpo«e hatt1o-«lro»as to link up the
vital coamiG-lnterlace grid.

• FuH SO Mnootti BcatMng action

• 3TT «J*ffara«tl l«j»«»ait t»fHL>*

• Boihm hiwuta, latoporl
pad* and Mli iy gommrtom

• Bn»p»ite« Ivy *»*»*» J umu »

• Bound FX by Tony Cfowmor.

C64/128cass£9.S9 CS4/128

disk £12.99 AMSTRAD cass

£9.99 AMSTBAD dis*

£14.99 SPECTRUM £8.99

Vric*£j

OCEAN CONQUERO

Producer: Rack-it
Retail price: £2.99
Authors: Lajos PaJanki,

Peter Vitray

Doing the Captain Birdseye
bit with a lot of hairy sailors
while travelling beneath the
ocean waves may not be
everyone's tdea of fun - but if
you're a submariner then it's all in
a wet day's work.

As Captain. Rear- Admiral, Vice-
Admiral, or Admiral -the choice is
yours - you're at periscope depth
aid intent upon destroying four
convoys, each consisting of a
freighter and two destroyers.
These are supplying enemy troops
based on islands in the region , and
should the supplies get through,
you've lost the war. Destroy your
enemies and return to dock within
18 hours and you're the victor.

showing the level of water beneath
the keel, the directional bearing of
the craft, its rudder angle, speed
Of climb through the water and
velocity. Seeing as how the tetter's
maximum is a nip over 20 mph, it's
thoughtful of the programmers to
have avoided tedium in long
stretches of empty water by
allowing travel in accelerated time.

Diving and surfacing is
regulated by ballast tanks which
contain either compressed air or
water, so that the sub rises or
sinks. Compressed air is
produced by an on-board diesel
motor, (which also recharges the
subs batteries). If there's
insufficient air for the ballast tanks
then the sub cannot elevate to the
surface.

The sub's arsenal comprises a
stock of forward firing torpedoes
and antiship missiles which can be
launched and guided to targets in

J ROBIN L

" Ocean Conqueror is in a similar vein to Hewson's simulation
release Evening Star (reviewed on page 28) in that it takes a white
before you can actually get anywhere. The instructions explain
all the controls in detail but this doesn't seem to help that much.
I spent ages just figuring how to get out of the dock. Once that
initial frustration is overcome the game Improves tremendously.
Graphically it's nothing amazing, but the 3-D graphics are
effectively used for islands and other objects. It's tricky to get
into and potential buyers may be put off, but perseverance is its
own reward, and Ocean Conqueror is the best submarine
simulation to date, '*

any direction. Any destroyed
enemy freighters or destroyers are
added to your tally of victims, but
your own vessel is also vulnerable
to collisions and missile hits from
enemy destroyers. The extent of
damage is Indicated on a status,
panel. Two of the islands contain
docks where the submarine can
be repaired, refuelled and
rearmed; a guidance display
shows the distance from the
nearest dock once you're within a
mile of it,

J NICK L

" Periscope up, full speed
ahead. Ocean Conqueror Is a
really good submarine
simulation. Once you've
managed to get out of port
the whole game explodes
with addictiveness.

Lighthouses, islands and
even the odd convoy come
into your periscopes view. A
bit of lining up and away goes
a torpedo and KABOOM (got
that from Batman . . . } the
ship is sunk, but keep your
eye on the radar because
you're about to travel over a
coral reef! There are a few
well-drawn islands out there
too. Ocean Conqueror will
gppeal to most people, even
if your burning ambition isn't
owning your own

submarine. "

72%

THE NEW LABEL

Rack-It is a new budget label
from Hewson which was

«d on 17 September.
With increasing attention to 1 6-

iohines, Hewson feels
there's an increasing need to
provide pocket-money-price
games for the 8-bit machines.
Rack- It games are armed at the
£3 mark to allow a financial
margin for developing more
sophisticated programs than a
£1 .99 price would allow, There
are two other programs in the
first release schedule:
Draughts Genius (reviewed on
page 29) and the shoot- ' em - u p
Anarchy, available soon.

U COMMENTS L

Joysticks: Sinclair

Graphics: 3-D, not stunning

but functional

Sound: atmospheric beeps

Options: fog on/off. fen

levels

General rating: the best

submarine simulation in the

fleet

Presentation 79%

Graphics 69%

Payability

Addictive qualities 78%

OVERALL 77%

A variable magnification
periscope occupies the top of the
screen through which view
approaching freighters,

destroyers, drilling rigs,
lighthouses, and islands are seen.
As an added difficulty, fog may
blunt the periscope, but the radar
and sonar displays provide
essential information on nearby
targets, and further aid mey be
called upon - a map shows
convoy coordinates and those of
docks.

At the screen's centre,
indicators further enhance your
navigational capabilities by

J MIKE L

" As a simulation, Ocean
Conqueror appears quite
accurate. The graphics are
far from visually stunning,
but they're effective and
attractive. Strategy is an
Integral part of doing welt,
and though the

instrumentation appears
daunting at first, once
understood the game is
pretty easy to play - not so
easy to succeed in, though!
A likable game, worth
considering for your
collection, "

79%

► Searching for a yellow submarine In Ocean Conqueror

CRASH October 1 987 27

MEANSTREAK

Producer: Mirroreoft
Retail price: £7-95
Authors: Da la I i Software

Think once, think twice, think
bike - for in Mean
Streak they 1 re going to be
coming after you, on this Sunday
afternoon ride with a difference.

You're out there on the road,
minding your own business, when
a succession of computer-
controlled psychopathic bikers try
to bump and bore you off your
two-wheeled chariot. And if that
fails, they're not averse to taking a
pot shot at you.

But you 're not standing for that
You too can push attackers off the
roadway, or get behind them and
blow them away using the guns
and missiles you just happen to be
carrying.

But these fiendish bikers who
have never passed a proficiency
test in their lives aren't the only
dangers lurking on the streets.
Scattered across the blacktop are
tin tacks to puncture tyres, rocks
and oil slicks that can send you
careering and make you
vulnerable to art opponent's
nudge, ramps that have to be
cleared, watts that can flatten a

face, and gaping holes the council
have forgotten. Lose control of
your machine and you end up as
an accident statistic with one of
your three lives gone.
To avoid these odious

J ROBIN L

" At first Mean Streak looks
very promising, but

successive plays reveal a
lack of real substance. The
graphics are simple but
effective; ifs the Jerky
scrolling that lets ft down
slightly. Here's a game
requiring little In the way of
instructions, and so if s easy
to get Into and enjoyable for
a while, but 1 wouldn't
describe It as addictive and it
turns out to be a bit too
frustrating - on several
occasions when my player
was killed off the exact cause
of death was a bit dubious.
Mean Streak offers some
good ideas but repetitious
gamepi ay and some slipshod
programming knock it down
a tot of points "

obstacles, the bike can accelerate
or slow down, be swung across
the road or leap into the air.

► The Mean SfrKtAbattfelrack (just
past the Milton Keynes turning)

J PAUL L

" I was immediately taken back to the days of Spy Hunter,
speeding down the city streets blasting down all and sundry, it's
a pity that there seems to have been little progress since those
days. I had the Impression Dalali plumped for monochrome
graphics and diagonally-scrolling play area just to make the
game more up to date. The shoddy implementation results in
inaccurate collision-detection, making the game unplayable for
the most part While the bikers are well-animated and drawn with
plenty of detail, the rest of the graphics seem to have been
forgotten - and they're very average. 53^

JBENL

11 Mean Streak's an odd game. It resembles virtually all the other
diagonally-scrolling games in feet and difficulty of control;
somehow, though, Dalali Software has succeeded in making it
playable. After a few lengthy plays I'm welt stuck in and probably
will be for an hour or two to come. The controls are a pain - fair
enough, eight moves on one joystick isn't bad, but in a panic ifs
frighten ingly easy to jump when you want to fire a missile. Nice
graphics, nice gameplay, nice presentation - overall Mean Streak
is a nice game. "

76%

EVENING STAR

Producer: Hewson
Retail price: £7.95

6

ack to the age of steam,
when railway tracks an aked
through the country and a
British Rail sandwich had never
been made, let alone eaten , . .

The eponymous Evening Star is
a robust locomotive which makes
the tricky run between Bath and
Bournemouth on the Somerset
And Dorset Line. In Hewson 's
simulation, you are the smoke-
stained driver of this triumph of
engineering. Your object is to
reach Bournemouth on schedule,
earning points for safety and
economy.

The main screen shows the
progress of the Everting Star as it
puffs beneath bridges, huffs
through tunnels and dashes past
places luxuriating in such names
as weiiow, Chilcompton,
Henstridge and Binegar. But don't
spend too long gazing at the
countryside - there are heavy
penalties for running late,
especially if you choose to take out
the flagship service, the Pines

You control the train using a
regulator for speed and acutofffor
engine efficiency, which can be
tested by checking the colour of

28 CRASH October 1987

the smoke coming from the
engine's stack. Vacuum brakes, a
blower, an injector and a fire door
and damper also help you get the
most from your leviathan of the
railway track - but you won't get
anywhere without water and coal,
and supplies are limited.

Signals must be obeyed, or you
risk a fatal collision on a one-track
line; and speed limits can deter
your boyish enthusiasm for driving
a steam train recklessly. They
must be adhered to. or you could
lose safety points, or even be
derailed.

J MIKE

'* By today's standards the Southern Ballsish graphics ere a bit
poor, with some huge jumps in the foreground. And though the
accelerated-time facility is something of a godsend, Evening Star
Is by turns incredibly dull and far too complicated. If you're into
trains and you havent seen or played Southern Belle, you might
find Evening Star fun; but it could almost be mistaken for a
reretea&e. " "

4»%

And don't forget the passengers
- the Evening Star has to make
stops. Overshooting the station
can lose you points, and at
Bournemouth you might hit the
buffers; brake carefully, too, or the
travellers will be thrown into each
other's laps and injured.

The main object of Evening Star
is to reach Bournemouth with
enough points to pass; options

allow you to challenge a time
record or try to keep up with a strict
timetable.

Hewson's {then Hewson
Consultants') Southern Belie,

I PAUL L

" So they've changed the
name, but not much else Is
different from Southern Belle
- it's all the basic repetitive
actions from the last train
simulation and moreE And
though the idea is appealing,
after one trip down to
Bournemouth I didn't fancy
another laborious jaunt. The
vector drawings are
competent, and complement
the footplate controls
perfectly. But graphics aren't
really important in this kind
of game - it's the
atmosphere created by
accuracy that matters. So
dedicated train fans will love
the feel of Evening Star, but
you have to be an enthusiast
to enjoy ft. "

70%

Advance warning of the problems
ahead on the scrolling screen is
given Defencter-style by a radar
screen showing a vertical view of
the road section with the position
of your bike and opponents

Fuel, oil, missiles and tyres are
in limited supply, though there are
engine-refreshment cans and
missiles on the road.

There are three restart cones
that can be picked up as you ride
onward; should you succumb to
an unwholesome end, a cone will
allow you to restart from the point
where you picked rt up.

IC0MMENTSL_

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston,
Sinclak

Graphics: good main
characters, marred by jerky
scroti ing

Sound: reasonable tune and
spot. FX

General rating: an above-
average game that could have
achieved much more with
improved payability

Presentation 64%

Graphics 66%

Payability 67%
Addictive qualities

OVERALL 64%

another locomotive simulation,
received 84% Overall in CRASH
Issue 20 two years ago.

JNtCK L

" This one is more for the
simulation buffs than the
arcade freaks - K takes you
half an hour Just to digest the
instructions! Some parts are
quite playable, but don't buy
Evening Star unless you're a
train buff with a desire to
control a steaming beauty. M
UK

J

COMMENTS

Joysticks; Cursor. Kempston.

Sinclair

Graphics: simple, slow-
moving vector graphics;
monochromatic play area,
colour on gauges and borders
Sound: only the pfiwee&p of
the steam whistle . . .
Options; a choice of eight
levels presenting different
problems: a computer-
controlled run is also available
General rating: a detailed
steam-train simulation for the
• ery similar to Southern

Presentation 60%

Graphics 54%

Payability

Addictive qualities 49%

OVERALL 53%

DRAUGHTS GENIUS

Producer: Rack-It
Retail price: £2.99
Authors: Raff aele Cecco,
Pablo Malnati, Giovanni
Zanetti

P faying draughts against a
confirmed megagenius like
Einstein could be a
humiliating experience. Are you
man or woman enough to do it?

Easy, you think - so, as you face
Einstein across the draughtboard
in the professor's front room
(decoration by Oxfam . . . ), the
battle of two great minds begins.
But even Einstein is beatable;
there are eight skill levels in this
draughts challenge, one of the first
releases on Hewson's new Rack-It
budget label. If he's thinking too
hard you can hurry him up by
pressing Q, and on noticing a fatal
mistake you can cancel the last
move!

J ROBIN L

" Games seem to be heading
back to the past, what wfth
Breakout variants, Battleships
and now draughts - where
has originality gone? Still,
Draughts Genius has
everything you could
possibly ask of a game based
on draughts. The graphics
are reasonable, wfth some
nice attention to detail, and
the computer offers a mean
game — but remember you
can buy a draughts set for
about this price and the
board can double as a
chessboard! "

57%

J NICK

" Oont think this is just another boring draughts game - it's full
of cute little animated sequences (like all the programming team
dancing around the piano at the start, and the things Einstein
does when he wins and loses}. Colour is used well and the
background on the main screen is fantastic. Underneath the
fancy stuff there's a first-class draughts game with useful skill
levels, and even if you're no good at draughts you can use the
cheats to win in Draughts Genius! "

89%

To move, position the cursor on
the piece you want to move, press
the space-bar, transfer the cursor
to the square you want to move fo,
and press the space-bar again to
actually make the move. A counter
shows how many moves you are
into the game.

The crowd is breathless as
everyone waits for Einstein's
response. Then it's your turn to put
the professor in a predicament
again. If the chance arises try a
multiple move, skipping like some
demented leapfrogger across
Alberts men and thus removing
them from the board, (To make a
multiple move, press the space-
bar twice after moving the cursor
to your target square,)

Impatient Einstein will tell you
when it's your move and when it's
his. And on winning or losing, you
are either applauded by the genius
or ridiculed for your pea-brained
incompetence.

J MIKE L

" Draughts Genius is good
fun, and a worthwhile buy at
not much more than a
draughts set. The one-move-
back trick is a good cheat,
and Einstein is guile
amusingly animated. This is
worth getting, even though I
can't beat Level 6. "

79%

COMMENTS

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston,

Sinclair

Graphics; good perspective

on the board, and

surrounds

Sound: tune to go with the

opening dance routine

Options: eight skill levels

General rating: good

implementation ol draughts

Presentation

Graphics 71 %

Payability 68%

Addictive qualities 64%

OVERALL 68%

► Einstein takes a well-earned break from relativity

1M

'&BSA

LET'SPIC

I

K

>*#

From the Dawn of Time comes a Legendary
Warrior to thrill players everywhere....

^,5 billion years have passed since the earth's creation. Many dominators
have ruled in all their glory. But Time, their greatest enemy ufcimawly
defeated their retgn,

And now a Dominator'5 reign begins Rygar, the Legendary Warrior! A

warrior who respects ono code and one code atone, the code of combat-
Antagonistic gladiators, reptiles, mammaJs, monsters, creatures of
magic...come one, come alt, come to meet the might of the fearless
Rygar and in the words of the Immortal warrior LET'S FIGHT'fl ,**S>

>, v

cam

CBM6V128 SPECTRUM
£9.99 £14.99 £8.99

Cassette Disk Cassette

AMSTRAD
£9.99 £14.99

Ci^h

iltN SHQ1S FROM ARCADE VERSION,

ILS.GoSd Ltd., Units 2/3 Hertford Way, Holford,
Birmingham B6 7AX. Tel; 021 356 3388

Once again, my ptgeoncave groaned under the weight of mail, and
nearly all of rt fashing back at the Barbarian backlash, On behalf of
Oliver Frey and the rest of the CRASH team, may I thank everyone
who wrote in support of the cover. (Speaking of which, rumours thai
I modelled for the Renegade cower simply aren't true, It was Roger
lid it - well his arms anyway. Robin Candy's washboard
stomach was required for the. ..stomach I suppose). But I just
oouldnt face another massive Barbarian debate column again, so I
moved on to the remaining letters, and from those, here's this
month's pick, with Letter Of The Month first, earning its sender £30
worth of software.

RUNNING AWAY

Lloyd

Do you remember me moaning
about consoles in Issue 39? There
seems to be a general agreement
on my main point; that whilst the
consoles can make noisy

i ons and pretty colours, the
Spectrum and other home
computers will still be popular
because they are better suited to
the development of original
games.

So where are the original
games*?

he 44 contains reviews of 28
games (not counting strategy and
adventure, but there weren t any
realty innovative Ideas in those
departments either). Three were
sport simulations. Eight were
arcade-adventures. A massive 1 3
were pure arcade action, mostly
shoot- 'em-ups (this is the
computer that isn't suited to
arcade conversions, remember?).
That leaves only four original
games 1 ; Rebel, Mercenary,
Satcom and Stifflip & Co. 24 very

i nal games out of 28
opportunities for exciting new
ideas seems a bit of a waste to me .
The strange thing is that two of
the four were Smashed, and Rebel
also received a very good rating.
Of the arcade-clones, only two of
the 24 (Joe Blade and Renegade)
received marks high enough to
justify purchase.

The cause of this glut of boring
games? Well, I suppose the culpnt
is the inevitable way in which the
Industry has become more and
more commercialised. It makes
me sad to say it, but I don't think
the magic enthusiasm that made
the Spectrum what rt is {was ?) is
there anymore. You may consider
this nostalgia on the part of a
veritable old crumbly of 16. but I
long for the days of the involved
adventure quests of Dun Darach
and Omgontorc, when Ocean
released unlicensed titles Q,nc$
every game contai ned a new idea.
But now it appears it is safer to
churn out an average shoot-'em-
up with a snazzy title, preferably
backed up by an advertisement
featuring a semi-naked girt.
Gargoyle have stopped making
iissic problem-solving
games and switched to arcade
games with FTL. Ocean have
decided to spend their resources
on finding licences rather than on

development And, though
this Is a minor point, it is
symptomatic of the commercial
trend; CRASH has departed from
tradition and featured non-
Smashes on covers. Renegade
and Barbarian were used, I
believe, because the images they
presented were better for selling
magazines. Enduro Racer was
featured rather than the fantastic
and totally original Sentinel. Now,
it's notthe fault of CRASH that the
industry is growing more
commercial, but the side-effects
are dire. The original games now
shine like dazzling beacons from
the drab dullness of the arcade-
clones and film/book/W/oartoon/
cuddly toy tie-ins.

It is a tragedy because
programmers aren't running out of
new ideas; they are running away
from new ideas. And origin?
doesn 't mean that a game can't be
commerclaUy successful. So
please, programmers (and r
Importantly, software houses and
distributors), please don't turn
your backs on originality. It can be
financially rewarding, and it will
help to prolong the lively life of
what Roger Kean has termed
'Arcade Computer Enjoyment'
rather than the current phase of
Licences, Empty Tie-ins &
Horrendous Arcade-RJpoff Games
in Computing. Programs should
be ACE not LETHARGIC!

What do other readers,
especially the more recent
Spectrum owners, think about all
this?

Anthony Bailey, Carshalton,
Surrey

I don t regard your comments as
being nostalgic, since nostalgia is
usually seen as a state of looking
fondly at the past in an uncritical
way - you do seem to be trying to
live in the present! As to the cover
illustrations, you 're both rig.'<
wrong, CRASH has featured the
occasional non-Smashed game
on the cover in the past but it's
true that games like Enduro Racer,
Barbarian ancf Renegade provided
what was considered to be the
best illustrative opportunities at
the time.

I would welcome some
reactions to Anthony's letter, off
the cuff, here's a couple of mine: I
also think a lot of program
developers are running away from
ideas, because for an enthusiastic,
inquisitive mind, it is just

impossible to run out of ideas. And
perhaps in the past Ocean could
have beeri accused of thinking
more about licences than the
result, but I've detected a definite
change in the company's policy
towards game development
recently (even towards arcade
conversions). A lot of care,
attention and polish seems to be
the result, and they have had some
very fine programs well rated
lately.

Thanks for the letter Anthony, it
isn'toften I end up giving Letter of
the Month to someone twice, but!
felt your letter deserved it, sothat's
£30 worth of software for you - 1
hope there's something available
you realty would enjoy having , . .

LM

BORED

Dear Lloyd

I V© had (yawn) enough? CRASH is
just so (yawn) boring. Where's the
controversy, sparkle, excitement
or humour?
The reviews; these are just so

drab. Don't think just because
. e splashed a lot of colour
around that they're lively now,
they're just so monotonous and
predictable. The reviewers don't
have enough space to express
themselves properly, the result
being that they all just burble on
about how good/bad/average the
game is and not a lot else. Why not
give one reviewer three-quarters
of the available space to get much
deeper into the game and have the
other two give a quick comment
and their own percentages althe
end? Also, take a lesson from
ZZAP! The way they explain each
percentage in a quick sentence or
two is much more accurate and
interesting.

General entertainment value of
the mag is sinking. There is just no
humour any more, what with
Tamara leaving, Hannah
disappearing and no reef
characters left in the mag le no
Angus Ryall {remember him?),.
Minspn only getting a page and
yourself on every second page.
(August 43 you had 1 6 pages all to
yourself). I've nothing against you
but you can get a little much,

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CRASH October 1987 33

month in month out, as everyone
else would too, no matter how
Interesting they were, Even your
Forum is getting totally borii
There's been no really angry or
interesting letters forages, no
or funny ones and no controversial
issues of any real issue. The
Barbarian cover was only an
excuse to be disgusting on the
part of Oli, and stir up a little
excitement it did, but still who
cares? If you feel so strongly about
the mag'a cover, don't buy it!
Newsfietd will get the message
soon enough!

Excitement; What's that? Apart
from colour CRASH has become
stagnant. Apart from that OINK!
thing {did anyone find that
amusing in the slightest?) CRASH
has. done nothing interesting for
years. Perhaps it's because you
are the market leader, and are
resting on your laurels. (It's worked
for the past four years, why
shouldn't it keep on working?) Well
I'm afraid you're going to start
losing readers unless you break
from the norm fast

Please take note.
John Hay, Dornoch, Sutherland

No controversy, sparkle,
excitement or humour? Reviews
so drab? Weil, it's only 3 personal
opinion, of course, but as a fairly
close CRASH watcher over the
years, I'd say the reviews were
more tightly written, more to
point and without any loss of

humour or sparkle - but then, I'm
biased. The magazine still gets
through more reviews than almost
any other comparable periodical,
and manages to fit in numerous
articles. Do you really want what
you refer to as 'depth ' in games
reviews? Damn it all, they are
reviews, not a replacement for

nding out what the games
are about.

The entire tone of your letter
suggests that no-one at CRASH
has any regard for thereader other
aking their money off them, I
suggest you have a go at
producing a fanzine, as many
CRASH readers do, and you might
begin to realise just how much
effort goes into every month's
edition. And naturally, Oliver Frey
just loves being disgusting,, that s
all he has time to do . . .
LM

CRASH

BR IT AN NIC A

Dear Uoyd Mangrarn
I've collected CRASH since Issue
Five, but I have loBt a few old and
precious ones, and I was
wondering if you could do a
CRASH Encyclopedia containing
all the games reviewed, and what
they got (apart from Sabrewutf Ha
Ha). Then you could average out
the CRASH'S all time top 50

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greats, lor the normal games,
adventure and a top 20 for
strategy. You could also ask the
readers to vote for the best all time
game from Wheeiie to Starglider.
You could have this free with one
CRASH (Christmas Special) or put
the price up to £1 .50 for that issue.
Off the subject now, and I have
been wondering, what has
happened to Matthew Smith's
new game Attack Of The Mutant
Zombie Flesh Eating Chickens
From Mars'? I have seen thfi
adverts In CRASH for a few
months, and wondered if you
knew anything, like was it to be a
piatform game?
Paul Cornan (13), Barry, S
Glamorgan

To some extent, I think we 're about
to answer your prayers Paul.
Starting this issue there's the
CRASH History with general
details of events and software over
four years. Additionally, the
collectable series wilt be
completed with a detailed index of
all games over the period, and on
top of that, plans are afoot for a
special binder to enclose the
whole which will probably have
some extra special encyclopedic
bits and bobs to go with it. Watch
out for future Issues!

Software Projects are being a
mite cagey about Zombi© Flesh
Mutant- Eating Chickens Attack
Mors and indeed its creator, so we
can only hope . . .
LM

PLUS PROUD

Dear Lloyd

I'm a + 2 owner and proud of it, and
so are many others, but the trouble
is you keep trying to avoid 128s in
your reviews. A few games that I
think are very good because of
their enhancement are 180,
Gauntlet, Strike, Army Movespnd
Enduro Racer, but in your reviews
there's nothing to be seen at
enhancement.

Do you always try games on a
128?

For other 128 users I've
compiled my Top Five 128 music

chart.

1 . Glider Rider

2. Amaurote

3. Stonnbhnger

4. Leviathan

5. Starglider

For sound FX Amaurote must be
the best 128 game.
C O Fulcher, Thomey,
Peterborough

The reviews do mention any
significant differences between
128K games and 48K, and yes we
do play them on both machines.
However, I do feel a little more
attention might be paid to the 128
end, but in fairness, there hasn't
been that much to write about,
other than those games you
mention.
LM

MORE MUSIC

Dear Lloyd

I'm writing in response to your

request for a chart of Spectrum

music. This is for the best 48K

tunes.

1. Milk Race

2. Ghost Hunters

3. Agent X

4. Mikie

5. Terra Cresta

6. Renegade

7 . Chronos

8. The Fifth Quadrant

9. Survivor

10. Rasterscan

J T Charlton, Dover

Any more computer deejays with
charts?

GOT THE VOTE

Dear Uoyd

Thank you for the Spectravideo

Joyball I got with my subscription
- it's great and works brill with a
Ram Turbo Interface. Being new to
computers 1 wanted a mag with the
best information on software. So I
paid out for four mags, C&VG,
Your Sinclair, Sinclair User and
CRASH. CRASH got my vote and
my money for a sub, there was no
competition in choosing.

34 CRASH Octoberl 987

Just a coupte of things: what
about a hardware surgery and
previews on computer books,
what cio you mink?
Andy Muirhead, Wilmslow,
Cheshire

The only reason CRASH has
avoided too much hardware or
technical jiggery-pokery in books
is that with every Questionnaire,
these subjects seem less and less
popular. And most hardware la
made in such a way that it's not
really fit for surgery, more for the
trashcan. Computers, of course,
can be sent to reputable repair
firms now.
LM

CRASH COVER

Dear Lloyd

"Thtsssthefirst letter I've written lo
CRASH, because I've never felt
the need to before, but I believe
credn should be awarded where
it's due, so in recognition ot this I
must congratulate you on a most
informative and very interesting
all-colour magazine. It's brWiant
It's great. It's decent too.

Decent?

I say decent, because I saw
through (wish I couidi the sly.
deluding artwork on the Imagine
ad for Game Over (the one with the
naughty bits some magazines
have been trying to cover up -
Issue 43, inside back cover}. The
artwork was cunningly done over
the • ■ - urn . . . naughty parts,
they weren't just plastered with a
big, ugly splurge of some
company's trademark, as in some
magazines. In CRASH the naughty
bits were disguised under some
devious and stylish artwork. Is Oli
respond

Speaking of Oli, I think his
artwork is absolutely amazJ ng . I ' m
just astounded at the sheer
voiume of work he gets through in
a month, considering he circulates
between several other mags. His
covers, with the added touch of
the CRASH logo (don't change it)
stand out among the other
periodicals, making then
drab. So all the disrespectful

ingrates who don't appreciate
Oil's brilliance can go and *?$C%J»
And tell Oli not to feel discouraged
and to keep up the good work.

And finally to sign off, I think the
video reviews are a good idea, but
you could review better-known
films and also computer/film tie-
ins. ASso yourPtaying Tips section
is very useful and helpful, but why
do you wear a paperbag over your

S Alam Hannan (14), Wood
Green, London

The Game Over ad was one of
those things Oli just com
resist, and felt we should do our
best to retain the original as much
as possible, rather than slap a logo

'ie well-proportioned <;y
superstructure detail. For the
technically minded (as they say in
photographic magazines} the
added bra was done by tracing off
0*6 shape onto art paper, lightly
painting a black outline ot the
detail, and then Oli air-brush:
shape in black ink. This small
patch was shot to film and a mask
made to hold back the offending
part of the original in each colour
layer. Then the new piece was
added to the blue and red layers
only.

Am I giving away a secret when
I say that someone from Ocean
rang Oli asking whether he hadthe
bit of artwork that they could use
to make a large poster from ?
Unfortunately, his touching up was
only on a small scrap of paper and
it had been thrown away!

I like wearing a paper bag.
LM

HOLE IN THE
BACK

Dear Mr Mangram
Coutd you please explain to me.
how to put POKEs into my
computer, as I bought my
computer second-hand. I didn't
get a manual.
I've tried to put the POKEs Into
omputer, but I don't know
when to put them in exactly. I've
tried to put them in at the
beginning . and some way through

loading, but they never work. I
have also tried to put them in
through the MERGE" " but still
they do not work.

Please help, I'm desperate.
Paul Watson, Stanley, Co
Durham.

Paul Sumner says, there 's a little
hole in the back of the computer
through which you stick them . . .
no, he's joking. Actually
surprised you're having trouble
because it's really pretty simple.
Unless otherwise stated in the

7 Tips POKE routines
should be typed in before loading
a game, checked thoroughly,
RUN, and unless a DATA error

occurs the game should then load
complete with the POKEs firmly in
place. Wherever that isn 't the
case, the tip almost always says
so. Hope that helps.
LM

SAFE TO STARE

Dear Lloyd

I've just bought and read CRASH
August 1 987. My purchase of this
edition was quite unintentional. I
had meant to get the July issue
with the OINKI pull-out in it.
However, after reading the
magazine I was no longer angry

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CRASH October 1987 35

8Y MBit THOMPSON
(fTT^i WTLHURCH. BRISTOL

with myself for buying the wrong
issue- ! found your £1 mag well
worth the money and, having only
got a baby Spectrum, very
addictive, enough so to wanttogo
and update my Spectrum and try
ell the games you review so well.
Having finished with the praise,
I wonder if you could help me. Do
you know of any guidelines as to
the legal or safe limit of staring at a
television screen with regards to
your eyesight. I work- on an IBM at
work, eight hours a day, and
although I enjoy programming/
playing games on my computer
I'm a little concerned about my
eyesight. Please could you advise
me and other people to a sate
guideline to using computers
without damaging. our eyesight.
Maria Lyne, Shoreham -By -Sea,
Sussex

To be honest Maria, no, I can't. I'm
sure tons of research into the
subject has been dorm, although
the very tittle t 've read sounds
inconclusive and sometimes
hysterically silly. Certainly screen
static can cause eyestrain and
headaches for some people
susceptible to it, and / guess no-
one thinks it entirely healthy to
spend hours, weeks and yeans
peering a little green, orange or
white characters on a small
screen. At CRASH we've ben
staring at the darned things for well
over three years (which probably
explains why everyone keeps
bumping into lampposts) with no
discernabfe iff effects - but after
fifteen years . . . I don "t know.
Often, I'm thankful for my good ol'
Hermes.
LM

THE UNSWEET
PILL

Dear Uoyd

I was very annoyed after reading
your review of the new
Spectrum +3. To start with it
seemed like a good enough
follow-up to the +2 , despite a loss
of memory in the RAM disk
(nothing drastic). But I was really
fuming when I found out half me
add-ons made for the other true
Speccies don't work on this
inferior machine, and that the extra
port in its back has been made
specially for Amstrad hardware!
How dare Alan Sugar stoop so low
as to " beloved (true)

Spectrum into a half +2, half CPC/
PCW! All Mr Sugar has done is to
use the Sinclair logo to try to sen
this new model, gladly I don't think
tt will.

Also what is happening to your
rating boxes since 1986, looking
through issue 34 there were seven
headings for ratings, then It went
do wn to six , b ut from issue 42 (last
month) we were reduced to five:
Presentation, Graphics,
Payability, Addictive qualities,
and Overall.

What has happened? Has
everyone's brain been wom out by
the big calculation or something?
Paul Smith, Kendal, Cumbria

36 CRASH October 1 987

PS I thought the Barbarian cover
of Issue 41 was really good, and if
the people who complained about
it were annoyed, I would advise
them to take a look at some back
issues of ZZAP! for some really
gruesome pictures i

Perhaps the real points about the
+3 will only emerge when people
start buying it in great numbers,
but there's a lot of right to the
argument that whereas Sinclair
created an entire industry out of
his machine, Amstradare
determined to keep as much of it
to themselves as possible, and
probably to its detriment in the
long run.

i -nges in the review ratings
have been explained in each issue
where they changed, but the plain
tact is that over the years the
original CRASH ratings have
become outdated. I think H 's fair to
say that the current ones, and the
comments too, fit the bill better
now,
LM

BUGGED!

Dear Uoyd

When I read about a small fanzine
and their extreme political views I
felt I had to write and express my
views on such an apparently
blatant exercise by a few people to
get some cheap publicity.

The Bug shows some alarming
traits in its encounter with Creative
Sparks, The most afarmrng one
was politics In computing

'iiics!' I first thought when
reading your article The Bug That
Roared, August edition. Since
when has politics had anything to
do with computing for fun?

Since the average age of
CRASH readers is 1 6 years they
are too young to vote, naive to
politics and impressionable to
such material as published by The
Bug.

In addition to this The Bug and
Its political! standing is also
questionable. Mote what Jaron
Lewis said about Mrs Thatcher's
contribution to their series on
famous people.

i bet he wouldn't say that to Mr
Kinnock's contribution.

May I remind you what politics
has done to sport over the la?;
decades. What I'm suggesting is
that as soon as politics gets into
computing for fun then it would be
ruined beyond repair.

From what I have read The Bug
deserves to go out of business. I'm
sorry if that sounds too harsh, but
maybe it might do some good to
the software industry as a whole,
Michael Thomas (16),
Leamington Spa* Warwickshire

/ don 't agree that 1 6-year-olds are
naive on pofitics, but I certainty do
agree that party and unionist
politics should have no place in
computer gaming. That's a pretty
strong statement, Michael, so it's
fitting that I have here a reply from
The Bug themselves ...
LM

LETTER FROM
THE BUG

Dear Lloyd

After reading Tony Worralf's tetter
last issue we thought it necessary
to reply, on behalf of the Editorial

to some of the points
raised.

At present there are about thirty
tannines being published: how
Tony can claim to represent them
in his letter Is beyond our
understanding, especially as he
has just entered the scene. The
Bug is the longest surviving
fanzine, we have just celebrated
our third birthday, and like Tony we
publish for love and not money. All
profits are ploughed back into the
magazine, and it is written after
school and at weekends. The main
objective is to provide an
independent magazine which
features un -biased editorial.

We have also gone through
"blood, sweat and tears' to
produce issues of the magazine,
as has nearly every other fa 1 1
There's no point Tony moaning
about it, if you can't take the
pressure, give up. Nobody farces
you to make a fanzine.

respect a software house's
deciswn not to send us software,
however, we see no reason why
we should feature a company's
games if they don't send them. If
they wished to have a game
featured it would be sent and not
doing so clearly shows a wish not
to have the product reviewed.
The Bug is not run by Jeffrey
Davy as stated but by an Editorial
Team, Perhaps If Tony had looked
at our magazine or read the
CRASH article properly he would
have not made such a mistake.
The Editorial Team does not
support any particular political
party. A magazine which fights
prejudice, whether it be sexism,
heterosexism, racism or any other
prejudice, is not 'loony' as so
cruder/ stated, merely humane. To
see how this makes a difference
why not send 40p and an SAE to
us at 28 Leaside Avenue, London
N10SBU

CSD were in the wrong as our
contract stated we would have
complete editorial freedom. They
breached the contract and knew
it. I think this proves we do the
magazine for the readers and not
the money. If we had obeyed their
orders and kept the contract (until
they went bust) we would have put
money before the readers. We
have been supported by many
people in the industry for standing
up to CSD, we did not give
fanzines a bad name and were not
bought-off by "the hand that
feeds'.
During the contract, our

■WT&\'

circulation was at 1 ,500 copies per
issue, the advertising rates at the
time reflected this high circulation.
The advertising revenue went to
pay for essential things like the
phone bill and postage costs, if we
were engaging in 'blatant
profiteenng' as stated we would
not usethephoneto obtain review
copies and our service to the
readers would suffer. Once again
we were puttingthe readers before
money, If Tony thinks Jan tines
should stick together, and that we
should have charged a lower rate.
why does he write letters like he
did?

Towards the end of the letter
Tony quoted Jeffrey Davy's view
on a single fanzine ma^-
difference. Obviously th&w; \
the end of the letter and he was
getting so into slagging us off he
did not even think about the idea.
A smaller number of fanzines with
bigger circulations would h;;
lot more impact that many smaller
ones, all saying different things. He
may not like The Bug, but that
does not mean that everything we
say is rubbish.

Publishing nit-picking letters,
such as you did , does absolutely
nothing to further the interests of
fanzines. Tony seems to call us
hypocrites yet if we behaved the
way he seems to want us to, we
would be putting money before the
readers. If this is what his
magazines does, I think some self-
analysis is in order before he calls
us hypocrites.

Jaron Lewis & Jeffrey Davy -
Members of Editorial Team, The
Bug.

/ feel I have to defend my right to
sfi letters from readers with
kms, no matter how muddled
or obnoxious their contents may
seem to attended people. A.
defence of The Bug 3 s editorial
team, I 'm onfy too well aware of
how office overheads eat the
money and force a pro
consciousness on anyone who
undertakes a venture like this r no
matter how small it may be.
LM

ARITMANRITES

ToaJI CRASH readers
I feel I must write and thank all
those readers who put my last
three games simultaneously into
the Hotline Top 20 chart for the
August issue. Possibly the nicest
compliment is Matchday at
number six, almost three years
after it was launched. Thank you!
Jon Hitman, London, N18

Goon Jon, rub It in, I know $
theone we didn 't Smash when we
probably should have ... i
LM

Weil that's my lot for this month. Soon CRASH Towers will be G
the Spectrums will be stilled, the Cubs caged and the joysticks
boxed. No, it's not the Christmas holidays, just that everyone will be
down in London at the PCW Show (where, thanks to the miracle of
publishing schedules, you could be reading these very words}. So I'll
have the entire ptece to myself - luxury. And if I get bored, III read
some more of your letters, the ones you sendto LLOYD MANOR AM
THE CRASH FORUM. PO Box 10, Ludlow, Shropshire SYS tDB.

I

IB

"Cktk Sfa : dMt4(446<

'A"

4 6cifi6#d t*K&<UKcllr

■%4f, <4k*pi-vn4cf <tmd

Screen shots
taken from
Atari vers ion-

1 Js a registered Trademark.

Coprighf ■', -1966 James aavBB.lL
'A986 de Laurerrtdts Emertainrnsnl IrtC.

6 Central Street- Manchester - M2 3^S 7 -

^ «* v

There's been an explosion in martial-arts
simssince The Way Of The Exploding Fist, as
RICKY EDDY and ROBIN CANDY observe in
this good beat-'em-up guide. And the ninjas
just won't lie down -all they want to do is . . .

THOSE BEAT-
UPS IN FULL

The Way Of The
Exploding Fist
Fistll
Gladiator
YieArKungFu
YieArKungFuIl
International Karate
The Way Of The Tiger

Amazon Women
Kung-Fu Master
Ninja
Uchi Mata
Barbarian
Kick Boxing
Ninja Hamster
Renegade
Sai Combat

HEY STARTED three years
ago, when Bug Byte
i reveal an interesting little
number called Kung Fu. It was an
admirable wireframe atten
produce a martial-arts simulation
- 'probably the most unusual
game to be s&en on the Spectrum
for a long while,' said CRASH in
amazemr

But sceptics thought the genre
would never catch on. It took
Melbourne House to show them
the way - The Way Of The
; Exploding Fist, which sold more
than 150,000 yr the

Spectrum and nearly half a million
across all re i mats.

Since then, no' pi the

combat games down, i
been grotesque (Ban 1 '

; and downright silly [Ninja
Hamster).

The genre soon caught the

nickname 'beat-'em-ups', as the

■ play always involves a player

beating up his v .hather

the computer or another player.

And with the advent of the 128s
and their improved sound chips,
the fighting effects becam-
hideous - the most cflstu
beat -'em -up sounds musl be the
animal squeals in Ninja Hamster.

But most of t 1 '
Simulations are so unrealistic, set
ial fantasy worlds,
irmtess su i
j violence - and everyone likes a bit
of that.

38 CRASH October 1 987

NINJA
HAMSTER

CRL

62% Issue 43

ROBIN a After many years abroad, Ninja
Hamster returns to his homeland to find
it overrun by evil creatures. Yout mission
as the Ramboesqiie rodent is to defeat
them all in h

Graphically Ninja Hamstet is very
detested, though 'some of the oetaH is lost

•
get llHO, despite problems w
Keyboard - there are m matty
ne Aed
I leel Nirtfa Hamster was slightly
.•;ew; it makes
a good beat- 'em -up, though II doesn't
leave any lasting impression.

70%

RICKY ■ And >/uu Thought hamsters
jaby tor one hell of a
g rodent, saving a village from
Sinister Ral, Loony Lobster and a host at
other monsters. The humour add
traditional heat- 'em -up' s appeal, but
cdesn '( ery average 'o

tjame.

mm

KUNG-FU
MASTER

US Gold

56% issue 31

ROftiH ■ in this converatafl of a corn-op
original you have to rescue a fair damsel
fiom iii j •

eponymous master, you progress
through five levels flighting off other kung
flu warriors and assorted monsters
conjured up by the wi?;;

r i ii Mfj'jfe*

BARBARM

Palace

85% issue 41

MCKV ■ Screami Maria mm
Pornography'! 1 There was great moral
outrage over the luscious lady who
advertised this Gothic horror beat- 'em-up
- and over the notorious CRASH E

Fight your way through screens of
beautifully animated bashing action to
release Princess fWarina from II

When you knock off an opponent in

rfan, a delormed lizard oh

:; ihe body away. Little touches

hKe this make Ihe game worthwhile.

though experts may find it a bit simple.

FLOOR H >H33

■■■

;v^^A

■■J

flUaw. 1

Moves for attack a Gap be
d qutte easily,

1 was never impressed by the arcade

animator:, and the game-play is very
Rwugpi Oie arcftfe Original was
ran-of -B r l have,
been made of this licence.

49%

RICKY ■ | didn't Ulhk much Of the CQin-
op Kms-Fu Master, and this is no
improve -:/?y Qqo <s a better
game along similar lines

38%

1

) j»

1^^

• h-^

1 I "

^=?5-^,

* i j

H

Still, 8f» Re of my lop :

ffefiS wearing a bit thin these
ciays
Now programmer Steve Brow

90%

ROSIN ■ Barbarian is one ol Hie best
beai-'-r layer). Mtis!

graphics are monochromatic, but this
enhances the game rattiei

Sng from the super-smooih
wriman
ifs instantly playable, and lor such 3

tan - you can invite

So rf you want nothing more than a
[forward brutal fighting game., i i 1 is
Is ihe one to get

IS !' : :

FIST II

Melbourne House

58% issue 38

robin ■ Two. yeaes after the success of

Melbourne House released this follow-
up. The warriors of Exploding A
been betrayed

an evil warlord The
player must find the temple of trie
of the Exploding F si. and thus gain power
to overthrow the tyrant

s a cisappointmenf - it
consists largely ol walking aiound the
many local | ing for an adversary

to bash up The fight sequences are

en]oyable, but the long periods between
Iraus

54%

RICKY ■ naor follow-up to the
snal angina!, Fist //lacks the
Nion of The Way Of Trie Exploding
end scenery i
and there's not >-
• ^rneplay

MM

YIE AR KUNG FU

Imagine

92% issue 25

RICKY ■ i fom Ki'f i n game

a Smashing conversion

got to
become s kung fu master - so It's j

i your disposai
as y«HJ bailie with nine opponents past
the well-drawn backgrounds.
This Is a good traditional karate game
eased in
early 1986 In tight of more recent games,
though, YieArtfung Ft/Is going to have to

be cor --"TaWe .

robin ■ n aglnc y conversion o! the hit

game is one of the most en

■■n-ups. The background g.

are pretty, the animation is smaoti

l' v e 4/ KtWjj Fu realty scores on

v with the range ol opponents

us! a bit too easy - but rt is a good
game

INTERNATIONAL KARATE

System 3

iee -s in the backdrops, which
take you around the world in live screens .

been rereieased by Prism at the
price of E2.99 It's p e same

as The Way Of The Exploding fi
much crude ■ | ^isitXe

you can earn extra points by shattering
blocks of wood

But payability is marred by the milliard
of keys your fingers have to grapple with

The game's one redeeming feature is
thB excellent speech as the scores are
dirt. I wasn't enthralled by :
Internationa! Karate - it's not very
e or playable, .-„

ROBIN ■ Internationa! Karate took a -
ne to actually appear after it was

when I did see it. It sbji seems awkward ;
to play, am irapWcs are

disappointing.

50%

CRASH October 1987 39

r

UCHI MATA

Martech

36% Issue 39

RICKY ■ Uchi Mats was the first judo
simulation on the Spectrum. Traditional
moves are executed in a novel way:
rather than using a single keypress, the
player takes the joystick through a series
of actions which relate to a complete
move. Four major moves are provided in
the instructions, but more are there to be
discovered by wiggling the joystick
around.

Uchi Mats sounds exciting, but the
novelties soon wear off and its not long
before you wish the sweeping joystick

movements could be reduced to a simple
keypress. Trough well-designed, the
graphics flicker badly, and when the
characters collide it's difficult to see
what's going on.

5t%

R06IN ■ Judo Is a strange martial art to
simulate on a computer, because it
Involves a lot of contact with your
opponent which others such as karate
and Thai boxing don't Martech made an
admirable attempt at representing the
sport in Uchi Mata, but the graphics are
appalling and suffer from severe bouts of
flicker.

What really bugs me, though, is the
control method. It's one of the hardest
I've ever encountered - trying to execute
a move Is almost a game in itself! If you
like judo, stick to the real thing,

35%

LEGEND OF
THE AMAZON

US Gold

WOMEN

70% Issue 29

RQBMI ■ Lady Wilde and her Infant
daughter are the only survivors of a plane
crash in the Amazon jungle. Recovering
from the shock of the crash, Lady Wilde
realises that her daughter has been
kidnapped by the Amazons, a horde of
woman warriors.

To rescue her, Lady Wilde must defeat
every Amazon in her way in a battle to the

legend Of The Amazon Women is little
more than an average beat-'em-up; there

aren't many moves, so it's quite easy to
defeat your opponents. The animation is
adequate, but not particularly Impressive
- like the game in general.

63%

RICKY ■ Legend Of The Amazon
Women is a. combat cross of Gargoyle
Games's Tlr Na Nog and Melbourne
House's Rghtng Warrior. But it's dated
and has little going for it. The animation
is reasonable, but the uninteresting
gameplay doesn't how up,

51%

GLADIAT

Domark

77%ls$w24

ROBltt ■ Gferd^for is a brt of a departure
from the standard beat-'em-up. Playing
the part of a lowly slave named Marcus,
you enter the combat arena in a bid to
earn some money and so buy your
freedom; and In case your fighting Isn't
too hot, there's also a gambling session.
This beat-'em-up is special because
the player can choose which weapons he
wants to use. The weapons have attack
and defence ratings which you can find

out only by trial and error.

Graphically it's nothing special, the
control method is tricky (there are 25
possible moves to choose from) and the
imaginative gambling sequence
becomes tedious.

Two years ago Gladiator was a good
beat-'em-up variant, but now it seems
only average.

52%

RICKY ■ Gladiator was one of the
serious contenders to The Way Of Tfle
Exploding Fist, and it stood op well.
However, it has aged and seems a brt
repetitive. Still, it's certainly worth
playing if you can get to grips with the
awkward controls,

59%

KICK
BOXING

Firebird

41% Issue 42

RICKY ■ Meet mean man Mick The
Meat Kicker - if s a name to be reckoned
with, But I don't reckon kick Boxing is up
to much.
The playing area is done In Isometric

3-D, but this doesn't affect the gameplay.
apart from making it hard to see.

You progress through the levels by
killing off one opponent after another, and
it's no more inspiring than it sounds.

31%

ROMI ■ I'd forgotten just how bad) tills

is! Firebird's representation of the fast
contact sport is appalling. The characters
jerk around the screen drunkenly,
performing poorty-drawn moves that
appear physically impossible. There are
better, similar games; Kick Boxing Is
cheap, nasty and almost unplayable.

36%

1

/SAI COMBA

/ Mirrorsoft

81% Issue 28

ROBIN ■ Sai karate Is like karate but
uses a stick called a sai. This simulation
pits the player against 16 adversaries;
vanquish an, and you become a Sai
Master. As In most games of this genre,
the screen shows two fighters trying to
beat the hell out of each other.
There's a two-player option for those

of you who wanfto hurt your friends, but
this is only really playable with an
Interface II unit - for the keyboard option
you'd need 16 keys each!

Sai Combat Is very playable, despite
all those control keys; the graphics are
reasonable, with smooth animation,
though some of the backgrounds are a bit
boring.

74%

MCKY ■ For a two-player kili-'em-up
Sai Combattm some marvellous
animation, but tfw gameplay becomes
simpte after a little practice.

72%

50% Issue 37

RICKY ■ Get ready for the usual
scenario which bears only some distant
relationship to the backdrops and very
little to the game itself . . .

A retmrte relative of Ninja, our hero,
has just had his temple robbed by a bunch
of evil ninjas. So off trots Ninja (the good
one) to kill off all the other ninjas (the bad
ones), who are still lurking in the temple.
These bad ninjas have beautrfufly Oriental

names such as Thug.

Ninja had potential, but it's amateurish
and ridiculously easy. The enemies can
all be killed with a couple of low kicks or
by lobbing shuriken stars at them. So
Ninja has very little to offer the dedicated
combateer, despite its budget price tag.
30%

■OWN ■This budget beat-'em-up is
one of the worst of the bunch. The
graphics are very simplistic, with poor
animation, andthere's only the odd sound
effect. It doesn't take long to get tired of
Ninja - even though it's so cheap, steer
clear of It.

39%

SCORE
30880

HI -SCORE

39880

5TRGC
07

HRN-CHEN

LEE-YOUNG

YIE AR
KUNG FU

Imagine
48% Issue 37

RICKY* When Konami attempted to
improve on Yie At Kung Fu by adding a bit
owa scroll and some 'wacky' opponents,
it all end ed up a bit owa mess . . ,

Oolong {from trie first YIb Ar) has a son,

aptly named Lee Young, who has vowed

to wipe out the last ol his father's deadly

enemies - Yie Gati. But Yle Gah has many

| faithful Oriental minions, and Lee Young

has to battle his way through them to
reach the master enemy.

For every wave of minion attack
eliminated, Lee Young gets a tea leaf,
and when he has five tea leaves he can
settle down and brew a cuppa to
replenish his energy, There are bowls of
chow mem to nibbte from, too; these
mate Lee temporarily invincible.

The main faun of Yie Ar Kung Fu Wis
the level of difficulty - there isn't any. It's
very simple, unchatlengirtg and pretty
dull,

32%

ROBW ■ As a follow-up to a Smashed
original, this Is disappointing. It's not as
beautifully presented or as playable as
Yie Ar Kung Fu. and it's so easy to play.
Don't bother with this mediocre effort
42%

THE WAY

Gremlin Graphics

OF THE TIGER

/

93% Issue 28

ROBIN ■ This Gremlin Graphics licence
is based on the Fighting Fantasy books of
the same name. It's spilt into three
distinct subgames which are loaded
separately.

The first features unarmed combat,
the second pole fighting and the third
sword fighting.

They're highly enjoyable and very
addictive - this is my favourite of the
beaf-'em-ups fealured here. The

graphics are excellent, but it's the

animation that really grabs the player, it's

just so smooth, If you're going to get just

one beat-'em-up, I can't recommend this

Bfttugft!

PICK OF THE KICKS 89%

RICKY ■ This is one of the best beat-
'em-ups, with some great graphic
routines. The action doesn't quite have
the excitement of Barbarian, though,

11%

THE WAY OF

THE EXPLODING FIST

Melbourne House

92% Issue 21

ROMN ■ In this, the original beat-'em-
up, the player has to fight through 11
levels to reach the rank of Tenth Dan. At
your disposal are a whole host of
movements, which are easily used with a
joystick.

When this was released in the autumn
of 1985 it was one of the most enjoyable
games around, and even today I
occasionally find myself returning to this
golden oldie; The Way Of The Exploding
F&rholds a special kind of magic
because it was the first worthwhile game
ol its type.

The movement of the monochromatic
characters is good, though sometimes a
touch sluggish. Like many beat- em-ops
its a bit too easy to be addictive In the
long term, but the two-player option is
fun. and The Way Of The Exploding fisf Is
worth looking at.

80%

IHGICY ■ Despite its age, The Way Of
The Exploding Fist has stood up very well.
retaining its exciting and addictive
elements. It's no wonder a game of this
standard set off such a massive craze.
and I'd still Smash it, so . . .

81%

RENEGADE

Ocean

/

89% Issue 33

ricky ■ Definitely the best beat- 'em -

up! Renegade is an epic of nonstop

fighting: with some original scenario

touches.

What is the cause of all this violence,
though?

It's Lucy - not just any Lucy, but your
luscious Lucy, the fove of your life. You're
off to meet her, but on your way you run
into vioient street gangs intent upon
mugging and killing.

There are six locations to battle
through, each featuring a different set of
villains - such as bikers, mad women,
gangsters and evil mobs.

Renegade isn't too difficult, and "it's a
game you play more for high scores than
for reaching the last stage. Fight, beat
and enjoy till you can smell the Wood,
PICK Of THE WCKS 82%

8081MB I was hard put to choose
between this and The Way Of The Tiger
as my favourite beat-'em-up - Renegade
is just so good. It's not the hardest game
in die world, but it's enjoyable.

Programmer Mike Lamb managed to
escape from the one-opponent-at-a-tJme
format typical of this genre, and presents
the player with up to eight baddies
onscreen to be defeated.

The presentation is very slick, tt would
be hard to fault the graphics and sound,
and with plenty of gamepiay this makes
an excellent buy. Try to get Renegade
WQTheWayOfTheTm

88%

CRASH October 1987 41

V

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r"

'V,

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OOPER

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r

Tbe flnkx «« the Miter ijrtenri (
aa kept let UxwBaadB of yearo
by the people «T Zybc* «m rumliwj
•part- Growiog dkaaOnrinUo" in ouDylnfi
nlaiKl bodies Lncriused ■» lli.'l
lyb^r^ciKJJoUtew^ir^ ^ m Ha h«nita. And «oTrant**.m» begirt

/iram«lrt*rflh*r«i^ -;ak and rtbeWownaiw* Made «ur*W»

r ljd-itUrKVixC<r*a«dU*efcruUpMnr«Oa( ifc.mrte»iiiat»»-#e^rahl.riiI«»1on«^«iiTyk\Ujtaed
ebandofmittewniert' <iallk) fO*ci at UieflmiWocUKEBUUmOrtE before

iU .locMkriu«aiUjrorilrHn»iMr«K<rto
unprepantd and w*w* o-r. return han » weoaiMterwe KHHrtinfl, Tnmtor found Iftc

i •■•maiju nf hb wndrir&vef forte scattered «n»cififl»t the oicn
landscape dot)* «*b thcteftfniBittata ofhla battte enolaw,
heft* the hate and mge »ur<je through his body and
v i within the tee enU campmimmt of Ma mhwi. he
recegntad the burden thai now lay **th
Mm, that alt now depended on he
- Tranter, the Lmt
Sumtrvopcr.

^

^

1

sues4

.

,

SPECTRUM +3 £12.99.
SPECTRUM 4K128K £8.9?
AMSTRAD tape £9.99 disk £14.99
™,M 64/128 ,ape£9.99 disk £11.99

ning soon on Atari ST £1 9.99

TOMORR'

Units 2/3, Hoi ford Way, Hoi ford. Birmingham B6 7 AX Tel: 021 356 3396

THE

SAMPLER

IT'S STUCK TO THE W

COVER - AND HERE ARE THE DETAILS!

Sorry we can't supply you with a cassette box, but it's
so much easier to stick a cassette on a magazine cover
than a bulky case. Still, if you cut out the cassette inlay
below, you're absolutely bound to have a spare case
tying around somewhere - aren't you? And now, onto
the preview demo details . . .

MEANSTREAK

Mirrorsoft, Mid October
£7.95

A long way into the future the pleasure
seekers ol Britain are bone -idle,
downright slobs. Everyone who needs lo
gel anywhere travels by molecular
disassembly/assembly - so much saftf
than using the only existing road - the
London Orbital, the M25, Known as 'The
BattietraGk*, it's a place where a rebel

minority armed with lethal bikes face up
the streets killing each other, You wanna
see the action? It's mean, it's vicious, and
water out for low bridges when you type
LOAD" " and sit back to en]oy
MirrorsDft's demo, which is also reviewed
in this issue,

Squeaky clean arcade adventure antics
in Gremlin's Watt Disney licence. This
demo offers 1 5 pfayabJe screens to tickle
your appropriate fancies. Bound and leap
about to discover five clues which shou Id
help solve the mystery of what really

happened to Doctor Dawson Keys are 27
X left'right K/M up/down. ENTER to leap
and SPACE to pick up or examine.
Elementary clue hunting begins with
LOUD""

TRANTOR THE LAST
STORM TROOPER

GO!, October
£7.95

The first game from LIS Gold's new label
comes from Probe Software and stars
Trantor as Ihe ail- round good guy hero,
Tranter isn't really the last stormlrooper
- there's a toad of the lads but, as you can
see from the demo, when the space craft
lands within a deep crater Trantor is the

only one lo escape alive before tie craft
blows to smithereens. Now alone within
the bowels of the planethe must fight for
survival , TTie music is down-loaded from
an Amiga and synthesises four-chanel
sound. LOAD' 1 "

incentive, End October
£14.95

Tou've seen the Freescape screen shots
previewed - now see it in action as
Incentive's iMfer demo takes you
through some puzzles from section one.
OwMerwill have two objectives within the
game, the primary task being to drill holes
into the moon's surface to allow

dangerous gas to escape, and second to
deactivate automatic defence systems
which are causing a problem. There's on-
screen text (press any key to move f rem
screen to screen) describing the game,
and it's LOAD" " to see Drifter in
ravishing 3-D.

09

s « £ 3

S5tf(50

E

±2 eg

THE

n.&nJ/JUZ}}

SAMPLER

Unauthorised Rasale Frohlbtted

ATHENA

Ocean, End September
£7.95

We were hoping to have- Gtyzwas well,
turt development of the program
continues even now. The review of
Athena is in tfils issue, but here's a
chance to fry out the game yourself i n this
playable demo of the first level. Keys are
redefrnable, and there's a choice of
joysticks, Athena is a formidable woman,
belting her way through life collecting
weapons and powers hidden behind the
rock formations. Kill the ogres and other

assorted nasties. Time is constantly
ticking down as the damage level
Increases, fie on your guard.

LOAD" " to load the master program,
then STOP THE TAPE, select the desired
keys or choose a joystick and then load in
the playable first level. If you finish the
level - don't attempt lo load in another
level even if the compute* prompts you to
-ft simply Isn't there!

30

i" >.

(/>

5 S 3 3 H

c 5- rn

O

rn

09

IKARI WARRIORS

Elite, Christmas
£7.95

Jungle life in Elite's long awaited arcade
conversion. The two-player game,
although you can go it alone, takes our
hero through the jungle and swamp
section of the game. Full on-screen
instructions inform you about the control
system - but once chosen it isn't

to select again. The full task will be to
struggle through several levels to rescue
General Alexander Cook - however, you
can't accomplish that in our demo, it's
just a good old fashioned shoot- 'em -up.
LOAD""

SLAINE THE KING

Martech, October
£7.95

A demo of Martech's latest 2000 AD
licence with that weird control method.
Gasp as you see Seine's thoughts waft
through his mind on the left of the screen!
Thrill to the comic-strip pictures as you

seeSlaine maim, kill and maim some
morel And perspire to the pre-release
hype on the top right, All this and more
when you LOAD' '"

JUST CUT OUT THE INLAY AND
FOLD WHERE INDICATED- USE
ANY SPARE CASSETTE BOX
YOU HAVE,

FOLHiKE
"Wist

SPECIAL THANKS GO TO; Pat Bitten
John Cook, Dateli Software, Ian Andrew
Major Developments, Sue Quinn. Kevin
and all 'at Gremlin Graphics, Richard
TidsaJI, Fergus McGovem, Probe
Software, Gary Bracey, Andy 'Athena'
Deaklfl, David Aubrey- Jones, Bernard
Ougdaie and the Elite crew, Data
Duplication for doing the technical bits
involving cassettes and the ladies at
Carlisle who stuck them on the o<

THE BUDGET BOO

Budget games mean more than pocket money to
the software industry - they account for more
than half of sales now. And while there's still a
vague stigma attached to £1.99 quickies, cheap
doesn't necessarily mean nasty, as BARNABY
PAGE explains in this analysis of the games
world's latest incredible watershed with grave
and far-reaching implications (Number 65 of a
series).

THERE'S nothing like a good
apocalypse to get this
nervous industry excited.
Every year, the pundits say
the bubble is about to burst.
Amstrad gobbles up Sinclair - whatever
happened to gentility? CSD collapses -
is this the end of distribution as we
know it? American giant Electronic Arts
muscles into the UK market - was the
battle lost on the playing fields of
Pasadena?

But perhaps the biggest bugbear this
autumn Is the boom in sales of budget
software. When Mastertronic first
launched £1,99 games three-and-a-half
years ago, the flourishing Industry
laughed at them. Fact: Mastertronic
has sold about 12 million games in
under four years.

Now Mastertronic General Manager
Martin Carroll claims his software
house's many labels (MAD,,
Americana, Entertainment USA,
Bulldog and the rerelease label

Ricochet, all budget) account for about
15S of all sales in the UK leisure
software market.

And the Gallup market-research
organisation reckons some 60% of all
games sold this year will be budget - an
estimate pushed up from less than 50%
in the light of soaring sales. So far from
being a pesky thorn in the side of full-
price safes, budget is big business;
some normally sober observers reckon
the UK leisure software market is worth
as much as £80 million a year.

Already, the figures tell a story:
MastertroniC r S Carrol! will put out
10,000 or 15,000 coptes of a game at
once, while the first production run for
a full-price product might be just 2,000

► Mastertronic launching another
212 labels in its bid to
stay on top of the
budget heap . . .

or 3, 000' copies.

But reports of the death of full-price
software have been greatly
exaggerated, most industry bosses
agree - because though budget and
full-price are both battling for the
consumer's money, they're fighting by
different rules.

Full-price games sell quickly when
they're hot and new, propelled up the
charts by magazine reviews, ad
campaigns and word of mouth - or they
flop. As Code Masters Manager Jim
Darting puts it, 'for a full-price game to
succeed now there has to be
something pretty special about it- and
that's more to do with the Incensed
names and the hype than the actual
product".

Budget games are low-profile,
unadverbsed ('there's just not enough
money to do it' - Darling), and there's
not much profit on each unit But they
keep on going, casually bought like
magazines in corner newsagents and
garages, which the full-price games
don't reach. 'A good budget game will
sell for one or two or three years, '
enthuses Darling, and as an example-in-
She-making he cites Code Masters's
BMX Simulator, released in the New
Year, it 'hasnt dropped off at all'.

NICE LITTLE EARNERS

Though the profit margin on budget
games is tiny, overheads are low -
c heap packaging and duplication, often
minor bargain-basement programmers
- and budget labels produce far more
games each month than their full-price
counterparts. 'The key to success In
budget publication Isiow overhead and
high production run,' says
Mastertronic 's Carroll with authority.

Some critics see the budget labels
churning out cassettefuls of dross,
scraping a few pennies and letting the
pounds pile up any old how. But budget
producers insist that they can't afford
to- release poor games - because the
individual titles aren't well-known, it'5
the name of the label that makes or
breaks sales. Indeed, even within the
industry, it's the range- Reaktdr,
Americana, The Power House whatever
- rather than the actual game which is
promoted.

Darling of Code Masters takes an
understandably optimistic view. 'The
real reason for our success is quality of
product. With one or two exceptions,
we've not released any duff products.'

And he's dubious about the value of
full-price hype, saying 'the
manufacturing and distribution end of
this industry underestimates the ability
of the end users to know what they're
buying and make an intelligent
purchase.'

Darling also gives credit to his
archrival, acknowledging that 'what
Mastertronic proves is that forf 1 .99 or
£2.99 the kids can get games as good
as they used to pay £8.99 for,'

One dissenting voice: Electronic Arts
supremo Trip Hawkins. ' If you buy a
book, you expect it to be well-edited,
well-printed and there to be no
typographical errors,' he pontificated
in a recently-published interview. 'If you
buy a record you expect all the
instruments to be finely-tuned . , . with
budget software, a lot of the production
values aren't very good. '

Strangely, though, rerelease budget
Isbei5 like Elite's £2.99 ClassKS haven't
sold very well - even when the games
were Smashes available at a fraction of
their original price. It's those crazy,
crazy markets.

CRASH October 1987 45

► 'Why pay more?': advertising spends are low for budget houses, so Code
Masters is experimenting with homing up signs in fields - the ' grass-roots
marketing" technique

AN UNEXPLORED BIT

(N THE MIDDLE

There's another side to the story,
though. About half of all budget games
d through small outlets such' as
garages and CTNs (confectioner/
tobacconist/ newsagents), but the rest
go through specialist software shops
and the high-street multiples, where
they positively profit from the presence
of hyped-up fu^pnce packages.

The goggle-eyed sprogs of industry
myth wander along the software racks
and pickup an £8.99 game -and when
you're blowing a £ 10 note anyway, you
don't miss another couple of quid, so
the consumer picks up a budget game
on his way to the till.

Perhaps the psychological appeal of
buying, obtaining, means that budget
games will never quite supplant the
higher-priced products and their fancy

packaging. And, to be fair to the full-
price games, it's not just a matter of
gjittefi some of the best software will
always be full-price because budget
producers can't afford to spend a long
time programming a to pay the teams
of specialists for sound, graphics and
so on which big games require

Maybe that's why b" ,r * is still a
dirtyish word, Take the Playabiliiy By
Design team {U.CM - The Ultimate
Combat Mission): they don't do budget
pmes, oh no, they do 'low-price fuil-
price games' which Mastertronic
happen to sell at £2.99, according to
programmer Dave Thompson.

It's not so easy to really make budget
games in the full-price style, though.
Production methods are different for
budget houses, and so is distribution to
those all-important CTNs. Budget
games have to get: everywhere because
they're not hunted for as specific titles;
'sales and distribution are extremely
important because they're radically

different,' according to Firebird
Publisher Chris Smith.

Budget packaging serves a different
purpose, too. Whereas full-price
packaging can be glossy and
impressive, the inlay for a budget game
has to tell you something about the
unpromoted title itself.

That's another reason why 'rt'd be
very difficult for a full-price house to go
into budget', as Smith comments.
It's more likely that the full-price
labels will lower their pnces to a
midrange compromise -£5.95. say, as
Software Projects did earlierthis year-
and indeed some wild estimates put the
• average' price of 8-bit software as tow
as £7.95 already.

' It's going to get harder to maintain
a full release schedule on 8-bit at full
price," says Firebird's Smith. 'As 16-btt
hardware gets cheaper the 16-bit
machines will be the 'quality' end and
the 8-blt mostly budget except for a few '
special projects,'

Mastertronic's Carroll agrees -
' budget may well take over for existing
8-bit machines," he says, because 'the
quality difference between budget and
full-price has narrowed'.

A firmer forecast comes from Martin
Currey. Sales Manager at R&R
Distribution (which handles the Top Ten
budget label among others, and owns
Alternative): 'Full-price software is
going to drop a couple of quid, There
will be a situation where it'll remain a
steady balance; 1 dont think budget will
take over.

'There'll be two distinct price I eve is
after this Christmas; £6.95, £7.95 at
maximum, and then your£15/'£20
leveL'

And. of course, there'll be the
budgets selling away, mostly at the
variants of £2 and £3 (£1.99, £2.95
etc).

END OF WORLD AS WE
KNOW IT

So budget has boomed, and software
houses like Mastertronic have proved
that you can produce quality games,
sell them at a quarter of 'fuH price'
(whatever that is) and still make a tidy
profit

The retail trade is convinced, too -
when Woolworth decided to
reintroduce software to its shops in
autumn 1986, the cautious, chain
tested the water with budget games in
70 shops and then, when that was
successful, realised computer games
do sell and risked full-price software as
well.

One producer, Ocean's David Ward,
dreads budget taking oyer the high-
street multiples. When deciding what
to stock, many chains assess sales
value per foot of shelf - and of course
a few feet of budget games drags down
the value perfoot of the whole software
•wet ion. Despite the Woolworth move,
Ward fears budget may force all games
out of the high streets.

Still, many full-price houses have
decided that if they can't beat the
budget spec^ists they might as well
join 'em, and launched'bodget labels:
witness Hewson's Rack-It, with its first
releases this month (see page 27 of this
CRASH), distributed by market leader
Mastertronic. Only a few have shied
away from the budget battleground:
Ocean, Actrviston and Elite (burned by
its Classics experience), for instance.

As the characteristically self-
confident industry paper Computer
Trade Weekly proclaims, 'budget has
won the intellectual battle; it appears
to be winning the commercial one as
well'. That's software for you; another
day, another crisis , , .

MY POLL IS BIGGER THAN YOURS

THERE ARE LIES, damned lies, and
sales figures. Everyone accepts that
Mastertronic sells more 'units' than any
dget house, but there's a
: nt barrage of statistics as the
also-rans fight for second and third
place ('Units'? A separate game and a
compilation each count as one unit.
Market share is usually measured in
units sold, not income.)

Telecomsoft - that's Firebird -
claims 11,6% of the whole games
market and therefore, by Publisher
Chris Smith's reckoning, about a
quarter ot budget sates. He'll settle for
second place after Mastertronic.
insists 'we're closing the gap rapidly'.

That's news to Jim Darting at Code
Masters, who says J we probably sell
more than Telecomsoft' , S
the Gallup software sales charts give
Code Masters only about 15% v>
budget market - but. according to
Darling, that's because Gallup doesn't
poH enough of the CTNs where Code
Masters sell,

Nonsense, says Alternative's Martin
Currey, worn out and tetchy after a hard
day of thinking he sells more man Code
Masters.

Even Mastertronic General Manager
Martin Carroll quibbles: 'The Gallup poll
consistently underestimates our
market share because of the
preponderance of W H Smith in the
chart sales.' He reckons Mastertronic
la kes 308 of the budget niaa

Ears must be burning in Gallup's
ndon number-crunching
headquarters. Social Surveys {Gahup),
perhaps the country's best-known
pollsters compiles the weekly music.

video and software charts as well as
political surveys, opinion polls and
market research.

The Gallup software chart orfgj
listed each week's 30 topselling
games- It was changed in mid- July to
the Top Fifty Computer Games- but it's
actually two charts of 25 titles, one
covering full-price games and one
covering budget games. They're
considered drfferent products -
perhaps because lhey do re
different markets and sell for different
reasons.

Every week, Gallup sends a list ot
games to about 150 shops around the
country. The shops fill in how many
copies they've sold of each title, and
Gallup compiles the results, publishing

- ach week in Computer Trade
Weekiv.

The charts annoy some software
producers because they don't reflect
CTN sales as well as they do high-street
chains and computer stores; and, as*
R&R Distrib-jtic-n/AlternaLive's Currey
ewt a slow-selling budget game
may not show up in the charts because
Shop assistants 'lorgetto out tlv
down which did sell but only sell oneor
two',

Still, 'Gallup'satl right as lorigasyou
don't trust It 100%,' he says, There's not
much choice - retailers depend on the
charts. Says Woolworth buyer Nigel
Wood, who chooses software for the
whole chain: 'We're going in a very clear
dif ecuon - the Top Fifty'.

And Wood reckons those top 50
account for 65% of games sold
week. They may not be perfect, but you
can't ignore the charts.

,'J hrtrlphtHif ntfivrmi; (MJ i los/.i, i h (v\ lb ><n \U f.sfiff (, Qittttm^ ~J:\

THE ULTIMATE

HEAD TO HEAD

CONFLICT

IT'S HERE, IT COULD BE

Imagine ui
bacon 'n' beans

Combat School,

been arou..

-j licensing deal

- an American

Combst .

S peed/poweryo U b^uptor aC et 9 _ ^ playing

The Spectrum version is wnn« 1 uj" . ^ ame tor

r^x« S£ -s. — CRASH

it just has to be that way'

me lot into 4SK • - . m<xe tfggjs per

test on* aB— . Snd the mere power you get-

THE ASSAULT COURSE

. ...„.« in me firs* event tests;* __

eep up speed and I

test two

SHOOTING RANGE I

Kambooom! Shoot the targets as
SSIiSS^up from the ground - be

fast as lightning To quanry v
must hit 40 targets.

test three
IRON MAN

So^isnVainso U tbyth« & s^ge.

test seven
INSTRUCTOR PIGHT

SSSKgg

^iuB9isnsss

SfiKSSsasas T » e «,w.oN

through the rocus.
time.

test four

test four

SHOOTING RANGE II

40 hits to quality'.

test five

ABM WRESTLING

affisffl

► Lots of kiboooma, tough guys a*^ rtraliwd wltl* fr«o 8w coln-op
that's t»«n coming ft in, Konamfs Comtaf SrAoo.

SsrJSSJr-^^- sw*«"»*

OURS, IT'S IMAGINE'S

WIN A SPECIALLY-
DESIGNED IMAGINE
COMBAT SCHOOL .
ARCADE GAME "

Who else but 1, Joe
Comps Minion, could receive
so much joy from giving away
an arcade game? Yes, an
arcade game in your own
home!

BUT WAIT - this is no
ordinary, overdecorated

arcade cabinet; Ocean and
Imagine began developing
arcade games in suitcases so
their distant programmers
could play the originals for the
purposes of programming.
After all, who wants to lug
damned great cabinets
around the country?

So for the first prize in this
special competition the winner
will receive a complete,
handmade, custom-designed
and reasonably portabie (see
panel) Konami Combat
School arcade game,

complete with a Tatung
Einstein monitor. It's worth
around £1,000.

(If you're reading this at The
PCW Show, you can pop
down to the Ocean stand and
take a look at the arcade game
yourself.)

To get your hands on this
amazing prize, correctly
answer the five Imagine

questions below. Three overall
winners will be picked and
then whisked by Imagine
(travel expenses paid} to their
hide-out in gloriously sunny
Manchester, there to take part
in a Combat School play-off.

Only one clear winner will
emerge complete with the
Konami arcade package. But
the two unlucky runners-up
wont really be that unlucky -
they'll receive Imagine goodie
bags stuffed with T-shirts,
mugs, games and other bits
and pieces.

20 further runners-up will
get copies of the Spectrum
Combat School when it's
launched at Christmastime.
And so. your starter for ten
is . . .

1 Which game launched the
new Imagine label in early
1985?

2 Who was the author of
Imagine's private-
investigator game Movie?

3 Who was the hero in
Imagine's Smashed YieAr
Kung Fu?

4 Which company produced
the original'Green

Beret coin-op on which
Imagine based its game?

5 How many events are there
in Imagine's Hypersports?

Answers, please, on a
postcard (or the back of a
sealed envelope) to

COMBAT SCHOOL

COWP, CRASH, PO Box
10, Ludlow, Shropshire
$Y$ 1DB. Don't forget your
name and address - and a
telephone number would be
handy. All entries must be in
by October 25.

IMAGINE'S COMBAT
SCHOOL ARCADE GAME

Normally the Ocean/Imagine custom-buift arcade games fit in a
very portable, metaf camera case with a joystick socket and fire
buttons. However, as Combat School requires a built-in trackball,
the designers don't know yet how big the case will be - hence the
phrase 'reasonably portable'! But I'm assured it won't be bigger
than a medium -sized TV cabinet , . .

CRASH October 1987 49

t

m

m

**" '• 9

MIKE THE MOUSE' DUNN, star of stage and screen dump, gazes into
the enigmatic Speccy - at winning entries for the issue 43 On The
Screen logo comp sponsored by Rainbird (on this page), AND the
usual gallery of your screens (opposite)

THE WINNER

I was surprised by the nu rnber of new
logos received for the competition
(most done with on of Rainbird 's Art
Studim), and the standard was tar
higher than l expected. Still, that
shows how much I underestimate you.

There were a few problems, A lot of
the screens were loo colourful , and too
many of the pictures were devoted to
overused, unoriginal Ideas. Things like
artistic utensfls - pens, pencils etc -
got a hit monotonous after a couple of
million screens. Still, it's over now;
congratulations and commiserations
to all those who want them.

And Simon McCarofl of Wirral in
Me/seyside wins the ultimate
accolade: his colourful, bright, and
attractive On The Screen logo wins
him a copy of Ra kitri rd ' s Advanced OCP
Art Studio. His Rainbird is a particularly
neat and uncommon feature . Sp this is
the one mat's got ng to be on top of me
for the foreseeable future . . .

•

hi

jgjjl

^1

M

I couldn't resist this one - it had to win something. The Jetina n cha racter brings
out the best in this screen from Paul Dilks of Beeston, Nottinghamshire.

RUNNERS-UP

Unfortunately Roger 1 hate pictures' Kean wouldn't give me much space to print
me other runners- up . . . still, in fourth place comes Matthew Arnold of Newport
Pagnell of Buckinghamshire, who must have drawn this picture of a Spectrum
with his monitor on its side!

And the fifth wi nner is Mr P Slavers of Ashbrooks in Sunderland, whose entry
was notable for its effective lettering.

50 CRASH October 1 987

Andrew Swan's chunky Spectrum and test-card background draw attention to
his cute logo. Andrew hails from St Andrews in Fife, Scotland.

C ll

" -ABM..

SuhX

In -

3313912193
1133193013

m a ■ ■■ a a 9 m

P«*.

THERS LISTEN

m\

Francis tee from Ha nrisworth in Birm ingham sent in a very good tape with some
neat screens. The first one , I tar Ds France, uses tots of colour, and has been well
drawn; the cyclist fills up the foreground and the French flag in the background
gives it that extra bit of style!

UNA JETMAN

I goirT prirt' this! You just can't get away from him, can you? A big, fat, cowardly
yellow loony superhero floats loonily past a space mine . . , Mark Otway of
Shepperton in Middlesex is responsible for this unparalleled looniness.

**■■

«jrfgra*r

^4

IP m Tiw pote

.msxm^jimmmsm

T T T T T T

«* *fk .m ■

GIBLET

^m-*

j i*i iuji 6:.--T-i i'M.' ':«api< \\i*> 1 r !-avj iiJTi-rn 1 1 1 (TnvL-^Tk'i >f.-nfn

their demo program is completely mad, and brilliantly funny. Galled Giblet
(perhaps after the animation team who did the videos for Jackie Wilson's Rest
and westwards Sonic Boom Boy, among otter things), their demo features
a little green creature - Giblet .

ft seems Giblet has annoyed you with some trivial prank; now the poor beastje
(boy) finds himself strung above any suitably evil punishment you choose. The
terrors range from a bed of six-inch nails to a hundred-mile drop. Fu n for ail the
family. . . sort of . . .

Another Francis lee piece, Diva is based on the film of the same name about
which I know absolutely nothing but which film buffs Kean and Page assure me
is a very chic movie set in Paris which was all about an opera singer whose name
they can't remember and it has a very good motorbike chase and came out in
about 1981 So there. ..

Phew - finished for another month. It's Saturday morning,

trees, and I've just got my O level results.

I may be overqualified for CRASH now - but if you've got
any good screens still send them to Mike Dunn, CRASH, PO
Box 10, Ludlow, Shropshire SY8 1DB- remember, if your
entry is printed you get a full-colour framed' n 'mounted
screen dump courtesy of Rainbirtf, (And if you want your tape
back, send a stamped self-addressed envelope with it.)

CRASH October 1 987 51

WW FOR COMPUTEl

The Battle

Continues!!!

loin with the forces of

MASK , skilfully commanded

by the brilliant strategist Matt

Trakker and combat the evil of the

villainous VENOM In their dues* for

domination of the world. No longer need

you stand by and passively observe the evil

deeds of Mayhem and his coconspirators.

Here Is your chance to dig deep Into your cunning

and put your skills to the test against possibly

the greatest

master criminal

the world has evejc .

seen, fact or Action.

This classic conflict of good

versus evil IS portrayed with a

realism and Excitement that can only

take fcrieod from the world's most famous

collection of superneroes and supervlllalrts.

"' there are creations of adventure, there are

creations of combat but there Is not a creation

quite like MASK!!!

V

l,r *«ff»^ V

• »

z&r,

'&%%£

%m?<

j^

.o;

^2

£14.99

DISK

2 7S3423

BREAKING IN

Homegrown software stops here; professional
programming starts. It's not easy to make that
quantum leap, however great your games are,
because the business is a jungle - but, as
programmer DAVID LESTER explains, all you
need is luck, a head on your shoulders and a good
pair of shoes (for trudging the streets).

LEAF THROUGH the
computer press, and you'll
find a different hind of ad, not
promoting a game or a
discount shop but looking for
games, or other programs, or
programmers. The software houses do
want to see your games if they're any
good - but today's market is very
soplnsticated, so it's important to
prepare very carefully before you send
in your work,

The place to begin is the program
itself. Before contemplating publishing
it, you need to be sure that it's the right
sort 01 - needn't necessarily be

in machine code -for so ins

ircations, other languages are
sufficient- But for most programs speed
is important, so you should either use
machine code or a compiled language
which can be translated easily into
machine code. For arcade games, in

particular, it's unlikely that you'll
achieve the needed .speed and quality
of graphics without machine code.

But this should not put you off if you
can't program m assembler or a

>i lable language. There are several
Very good programs on sale which w\\
do the programming bits of designing a
game for you - mainly for adventures.
Such utilities began with Melbourne
House's H,U.RM. in the distant past of
1934, but now there's also Glteoft's
PA W\ The Profession^! Adventure
Writer).

When you've written your game, you
should then try to view it in a different
way. as if you were buying it, not sel ling
it If you can, ask a friend to give his/her
opinion about it - not just saying how

good it is, but how it could be improved.
It should be fairly easy to start, so that
peoplecan enjoy it from day one- but
very difficult to beat and ideally getting
harder as the player gets further into it.

PROFESSIONAL
TOUCHES

There are lots of professional touches
which can turn a good amateur game
into an excellent commercial-standard
one. Go through all the screen displays,
and tidy them up till they look right -
easy to read, pleasant to look at,
showing the right information in a
graphically-exciting way. It's surprising
just what a difference simple things can
make: redefining the character set, for
instance, or putting in skill levels so that
beginners can enjoy it as much as
hardened addicts.
Sound effects are important, too,

First impressions are crucial - if the
first few screens are bad, then you're
unlikely to find a firm to take :•. A well-
designed loading screen can help, but
more Important than this is the title
screen, This should be interesting,
moving in parts if at all possible. Credits
can be fun, or you can use several
screens,

'We're looking for three basic
characteristics," says Ocean Software
Manager Gary Bracey: 'originality,
graphics (though these can be slightly
altered if necessary) and most of all
payability, which every game must
have.'

Look at games already on the market

CRASH October 1987 53

I

for other ideas - but preferably adapt
others, notsinrtpry copying them, which
might breach their copyright,

NO RIGHT TO COPY

Copyright is important - it's protecting
your rights. You might have written the
next Eke. but if a software house you
send it to claims it's written by them,
not you, how can you prove it?

If you can, protect the game from
people breaking into it; thin, in the
code, include several copyright signs,
with your name and the date you put
them in, You ■■ , display this
clearly on the screen - either the title
screen, or even the normal game
screen displays.

Then, to prove that the game ready
has been written by you, post a copy of
it (always make several copies of the
latest version of the program) Ina well-
seated envelope to yourself by
recorded delivery. When it arrives back
at you r home, don't open the envelope;
the game is sealed within, which gives
you proof of the date on whtch you
completed it Legally, your copyright in
a game exists as soon as rt Is written -
it's proving that date which is difficult.

Instead of posting it, you could leave
it with your bank in a safe deposit box
but the banks charge for this, and you
need to have a bank account, too.

Or you could consider the National
Software Register {see the article with
this feature).

PRESENTATION
POWER

So that the software houses know what
your game is about, you should write
quite detailed instructions, perhaps
wtth some hints on how to get deep into
the game quickly. Also, record a copy
of the game onto a new, clean cassette.
The more professional the program
looks, the easrer it will be to see its
commercial potential.

Nowyoushould be ready to send the
next Number One to possible
publishers, Try to spot similar programs
to yours already on the marker; if they
are very simifar, select competitors of
the firm which publishes them - no
software house will market two games
the same. But if a particular house just
publishes games in a similar style (like
arcade, strategy, war, or adventure
games) then it's worth approaching.
Says Firebird's Colin Fuige: 'When
designing a game compare it with our
present range - that should give you
some idea of what we're looking for.'

It's sensible to send a game to
several software houses at once - that
way, if they Irke it, you have a better i dea
of what sort of offer you can expect,
and sometimes you can play them off
againsteach other to get the best deal.

Choosing an appropriate software
house is especially Important if your
program is slightly specialised -a utility
or strategy game, for example. Firms
such as PSS and CCS specialise in
wargames, while Tasman might be
worth approaching if you've written a
companion program for a word
processor.

But while software labels are
becoming more markedly specialised,
many of the big names are owned by
the same few firms - so if you
submitted your new game to Argus, for
the sake of argument, it might be
ma rketed as a Quicksitva title or on any
of five or six other labels.

54 CRASH October 1 987

You might consider writingto budget
software companies. Mastertronic.for
example, would probably sell so many
copies of your game that you would
make just as much cash as if it were
marketed by a slightly smaller, full-price
software house - though advance
payments tend to be smaller from
budget companies.

And some firms (for example,
Tynesoft) are even buying
programmers' work specifically for
compifations of new games,

FINISHING
TOUCHES

With the mcreasing sophistication of
the games world, you might fear that
any game you produce at home can't
be as good as something produced by
teams of programmers working full-
time for the larger firms. Well, the
problem is surmountable. If a software
house likes your idea it can provide help
to improve the details of the game; lots

S now have special music and
graphics programmers. (Indeed, some
houses - such as Code Masters - have
been advertising for such specialists
recently, and there'll be a feature on
their work in the next CRASH.)

► Programmer Pete Cooke:
good product sells,
not big names, he says

Even if you feel your game isn't quite
up to today's (mostly} high standards,
you can still sell just the design and
leave the software house to do the
coding and create the game. Copyright
is a particular problem here, because
though particular chunks of code, text
and so on can be copyrighted it's
difficult to protect the general concept
of a game,

CONTRACTING
UNIVERSE

A contract is crucial tor arty agreement,
no matter how well you get on with the
software house - It's amazing how
friendly some crooks can be when they
want to exploit your work.

Programmers agree that a contract
is essential, whether It's the formal 30
pages that Mirrorsott offers or a two-
page job from The Edge. But
occasionally a software house will try

to get you to sign an exclusive contract,
so that when you sign your name on the
proverbial dotted line and agree to
assign it the marketing rights to Jet Set
Willy 1 7, or whatever, the contract also
legally obliges you to offer the same
firm first refusal on all programs you
write for the duration of the contract.

This should be avoided at all costs. If
you do want to write more than one
game for the same firm (which many
programmers do when they get on well)
you're free to do so, but if you've signed
an exclusive contract and things go
wrong you might have legal problems
tryingto write new stuff for other firms.

Try to retain the actual copyright to
the program and sell just the marketing
rights to each particular computer
version; that way you control
conversions and will get paid for them,
(Usually the original programmer gets
only royalties from conversions;
whoever writes the conversion
program gets a lump sum)

One problem with retaining the
copyright is that you'd have to pay your
own legal expenses if you wanted to
take someone to court for breach of
copyright. But a friendly software house
would probably help - after all it's in
the publisher's too to prevent rip-offs.

Try to Include a clause which
automatically returns all rights
assigned under the contract to you in
the event of the software house going
bankrupt ceasing to trade, or being
taken over by new bosses with different
ideas. History has shown that even the
most seemingly stable of software
houses can go bust at very short notice.

Check what is said about foreign
sales - these often yield slightly less
royalties than UK sales, but some
software houses do more business
abroad than in the UK. Also check to
see whether the contract makes any
contingency plans for your title being
sold to a compilation, which is another
growing trend.

It's sensible to include a time limit
within which the firm must have
launched your title, {On one occasion, I
agreed to license the rights to a game
in May, and it sfil I ms i 1 1 launched that
October; in the November, the software
house went bust!)

It's usual, too, to set a limit on how
long the software house has rights to
the game. Contracts usually run for two
years, but limiting it to one year means
you can negotiate with budget firms or
compilations for the rights after the
game's sales at full price have died
down (most arcade games reach their
sales peak within a few weeks).

OF BIROS
AND BUSHES

And now the big bone of contention -
how should you be paid, and how
much? Most people prefer money now
rather than the promise of it in the
future; but you have to weigh up several
factors. How much money will royalties
give you (no-one can really answer that
accurately), and over how long? How
much interest can you earn on the lump
sum being offered, and does it amount
to the difference between likely royalty
earnings and the lumpsum? How much
are you prepared to give up for the
certainty of getting something?

There are no pat answers.
Programmer Christian Urquhart {Daley
Thompson's Decathlon) reckons you
might get about f 5,000 as an advance
and as much as 20 per cent royalties
on all sales, on a typical contract but
then what's a 'typical" contract? Other

estimates place the royalty figure
closer to 10 or 15 per cent.

Ideally, you'll be offered a
nonretumabk* advance on royalties,
which grves you the best of all worlds:
money now, yours to spend or earn
interest on, and potentially high
earnings if sales go well.

What royalty rate should you accept?
Budget houses will inevitably offer you
less money per copy sold than full-price
houses will, but a budget came can sell
ten or more times as many copies as a
full-price, Try to get some estimate on
sates figures from the software houses
you talk to, and calculate likely
royalties.

Differences in advertising,
distribution, Hie label's reputation,
packaging and how much fine-tuning
your game will get - all can affect sales.

Be careful to note whether the
royalty rate you are offered refers to the
retail price (ie what the public pays for
the game in the shops) or the wholesale
price (ie what the shops pay the
software house and distributors for it),
and whether these figures include VAT
or not Your payment will be calculated
from the "basse' price, which doesn't
include VAT.

If you hear dodgy things about a firm,
leave it well alone; most industry gossip
has some foundation, and even if a firm

ply unpopular that can mean
lower sales or bad reviews in some
magazines. Probably most sharks have
been found now, but some may still be
lurking around - so talk to other
programmers with the software house
before you sign a contract and see if
they're well-treated, "Most
programmers are taken for a ride from
the start," says Jon Ritman (Head Over
We-efe), burnt by an early experience: he
got only £150 out of his first published
game, the successful Namtir Raiders.

Finally: don't give up too easily. Just
because you're new doesn't mean you
won't succeed, even though some
software houses receive as many as
100 games a week from hopefuls;
unlike (say) the pop industry, explains
programmer Pete Cooke {Micmnaut
One), 'it's not about an image" -
software houses are just looking for
good games. And if you honestly
believe yours i%good enough to sell
keep hawking it around till someone
agrees with you!

research: DOMINIC HANDY

SIGNING
ON

THERE'S m LAW in Briton specifically
governing copyright on computer programs,
though other software centres like America and
Japan have such legislation To protect games -
or other software - here it's essential to have
proof that you wrote it, and of wtmyw wroteit

That's wtat the National Software Register
provides.' it's m impartial though profit-making,
organisation which programmers can use. You
Simply send in a tape or disk with your work on
asd f or a fee the NSR will storert-faras king as
you fae and 50 years thereafter, (When an
author's been dead for 50 years his work passes
into the public doman - no-one can hold the
copyright!-

The NSR's Gerald Coteman sees a growing
legal problem in software copyright 'After afl," he
says, 'there will come s time when the output of
tomjwter programs exceeds thai ol fee
published word-'

Contact the NSR at 235 Chase Site, EnGett
NuMesexmONL

GREAT NEW AGGIE
BUYS AT GREAT NEW
AGGIE PRICES

up to 20% off FULL-PRICE games

including p&p!

BUBBLE BOBBLE

Firebird £6.40 {was £7.95)

cWBHl

LEAZE W

*s £9.95

WIZBALL

Ocean £6.40 (was £7.95)

LBALL Z

Firebird Silver (see BUDGET BREAKS)

THE BIG SLEAZE

Piranha £7,95 (was £9.95

MERCENARY

Novagen £7.95 (was £9,95

STIFFLIP&CO*

£7,95 (was £9,95)

HOTSHOTS

MASK I

Gremlin Graphics £6.40
HYSTERIA

Software Projects E6.40
MOON STRIKE
Mirrorsoft £6.40
XECUTOR
ACE E6.4G
SOLOMON'S KEY
US Gold £7.20

ATHENA
Ocean £6.40
6-PAK VOL. 2

Hit Pak £9.95
SURVIVOR
US Gold £7.95
STARFOX

Reaktor£8.99
TRIO
Bite £9,95
SLAP FIGHT

imagine £7.95

AND THEN THERE'S . . .

DBA TH WISH 3 Gremlin Graphics £640

EVENING STAR Hewson £6.40

SAMURAI TRILOGYQt&rAm Graphics £6.40

sr*htona Games £7.20

MEAN STREAK Minorsoft £6.40

SUN STAR CRIU3Q

HOW TO BE A COMPLETE BASTARD Virgin Games E6.40

REBEL Virgin Games £7.95

GFL CHAMPIONSHIP FOOTBALL Gamestar £7.99

CHAMPIONSHIP BASKETBALL Gamestar £7.99

CHAMPIONSHIP BASEBALL Gamester £7,99

GAME OVER \mj&naZ&4Q

wr8/?/£?Startite£7.20

LAST MISSION US GMZSAQ

THE FIFTH QUADRANT&me Bus £7.20

THE TW8E Ouicksilva £640

FLUNKY PiramZbAO

THE ARMAGEDDON MAN Martech £1 0.40

COrVa/C7StfPSS£64Q

ROAD RUNNER US GoW £7.20

CONVOY RAIDER Gremlin Graphics £6.40

MUTANTS Ocean £6.40

WONDER BOY AxAmson £7.99

BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN 39 Steps £7.20

PROHIBITION infogrames £6.40

LEV1A THAN English Software £6.40

NINJA HAMSTER CRL £6.40

CArCH23Martech£6.40

HADES NEBULA Nexus £6 40

CHALLENGE OF THEGOBOTS Reaktor £7.20

THE LIVING DA YLIGHTS Domark £7.95

THE MYSTERY OFARKHAM MANOR Melbourne House E8.4C

BUDGET BREAKS

Buy THREE £1 .99 games
and GET ONE £1.96
game FREE!

Buy THREE £2.99 games
and GET ONE £2.99
gam* FREE!

£2.99 GAMES

MOTOS MAD.
DRAUGHTS GENIUS RaCK-ll
OCEAN CONQUEROR Rack-i!
FLASH GORDON MAD.
RUBICON Bug Byte
VOIDRUNNER MAO.

Take your pick from the
budget bundle

£1.99 GAMES

HEIST 2012 Firebird

RAPID FIRE Mastertranic

I, BALLS FirebirdS: .

GRAND PRIX SIMULATOR Code Masters

GALLETRONBulidm

PNEUMA TIC HAMMERS Firebird Silver

SPACED OUT Firebird SHver

SUPER G-MAN Code Masters

TABLE FOOTBALL Budgie

WOLFAN Bulldog

PLEASE NOTE: this offer is subject only to
the discounts detailed abort; other
discounts such as CRASH subscribers"
extra discounts and the normal CRASH
Mail Order bulk-buying discounts do not
apply to games sold through this offer

the games above* were reviewed In
l$sue$ 43, 44 or 49 of CRASH, and mosf ar«
available, but CRASH evmot guarantee
that production copies are ready yet. If in
doubt give Aggie (asias Carol Kins«y) aring
on (0584) 58ZCHO find otil whether the delay
wtll be longer than 28 days.

■**■

SPECIAL DISCOUNT OFFER

l would like to order trie following game(s) as they're at such fab and
groovy prices thanks to Aggie's sudden burst of generosity, I've listed
below what I would like and I've enclosed a cheque or postal order for
the correct amount, made payable to NEWSF1ELD LIMITED.

Prices include postage, packing and VAT in the UK. Overseas Orders:
please add £1 .00 per order for Europe, and £1 .50 {normal mall) or £2.50
(air mail) per order for all other countries.

Na™ WSt

Address ...............

Postcode

PLEASE DEBIT MY VISA/ACCESS ACCOUNT C

I wish to pay by Visa/Aec*SS (d«i*tB as appl i cable)

Signature

Expiry Date

Ptoase Charge My Account No;

PULL-PRICE GAMES

TITLE

PRICE

SUBTOTAL £

BUDGET GAMES

TITLE

PRICE

SUBTOTAL £

FREE BUDGET GAMES

■

I

,

■-

MAIL ORDER, PO BOX 20, LUDLOW,
SHROPSHIRE SY81DB

P&P included

TOTAL -
PAYMENT
ENCLOSED £

r

>=

It's boo-boo time (you know I
never make them really), and
another spanking for me. In
Issue 43 the POKEs lor Monty
On The Run had one Una
missing. Line 30 should read
LOAD' - "CODE. It must be my
eyesight getting bed or
something because I could have
sworn it was right on John
Bram ley's letter. Oh well, thanks
to And rew S wai n f a r pa i nti ng that
out, and J'm sorry for any
inconvenience it may have
caused (but cheats never
prosper, my old granny told me).

The garden's gone berserk, what with steamy rain, tropical heat and
a full schedule at CRASH Towers. Sadly, no-one yet has come up
with a POKE routine for weeding, pruning and incinerating the
resulting rubbish. It's small consolation that the mail bag's r
month of POKEs, cheats,, and maps for getting through games, but
there you are.

There are POKEs for Hewson's Zynaps as well as Great Gurianos
and Airwotf I! from Elite's Trio compilation, and of cowse the usual
wild selection from that great POKESk Bui this months'

top Tipster Award goes to Mark Hnnngn for his map of Imagine's
Game Over. That's £20 worth of software on Its way to you Mark.

MICRONAUT ONE

Stuart Henny and Garry Sinclair
{any relation ol Sir Owe?) from
Scotland were playing Micronaut
Orte when they came across some
extremely useful tips. Being . . .

1 . Collect the small clouds wruch
float about the tunnels as these
increase your energy.

2. Destroy all of the webs, this is
done by shooting the grey blob.

3. Don't shoot the eggs, it wastes
loo much energy.

4. Only attend to the ETUs when
they are at danger status or
critical, otherwise you waste

-

5. The other objects you see in the
lunnels are there just to get in
your way, don't waste energy
shooting t-

6. The first three levels are the

mete of Ceres, the tunnels of
Ganymede arid the tunnels of
Phobos,

AUF WIEDERSEHEN MONTY
SOLUTION

The travelling rodent has at last found the solution to his quest in Auf
Wiedersehen Monty, it comes from Mark Ba'ham of Ipswich, and he
informs me it isn't the only solution. Mark finished the game with
25,6:23 on the clock, so if you can better him you should be doing
well. Just follow the list, I is for left, r is for right, d for down and u
(amazingly enough) is for up.

From the start gou,u,u. get ticket, u. i r, only get the left cheque,

I. d, d. d. r, get football, I, u, r, leave cape

. • .: ■ •• I i o .;' he wall d, I, r, u. go

right through both walls, d. r, r
ticket, u. I. touch boy. r, d. u. u, u, fly. d. get steering wheei

: v , d, !, r, u. • get mona fisa, u, r, u, gc right through wall.

d, r. r, r, get tools, d. touch cable car. d, u, I, I, u, I ticket, r. fly, r, u, I. r.

r. d. I, ticket, fly, ticket d;, d. r, ef, touch lady, r, tlckel . d, r, d, l. d.
u, r, u, I, d, d, I. touch fence, r. u, u By, X skat. i'y. d, d. r. r r, r, d, r, d, r,
ticket, fly. gel bacon, n rj. u. fly, d. t, d, r, d, r et d, I, AND

THAT'S IT1 (Remember to collect all the items (natal
except tickets |

GALLETRON . . .

. . didn't appeal to Ai and Rick
from Pirton, Hertfordshire, so
they broke the protection and
discovered a wee cheat mode.

When the game has loaded,
press SYMBOL SHIFT once so
everything stops. Then press C

56 CRASH October 1987

and a message should appear
saying 'cheat mode*. When play
begins you'll be blessed with
infinite lives, but an old Indian
guru once told me that immor-
tality isn't all Ifs cracked up to
be.

TRIO POKES

Elite System's great
compilation, Trio t has received
a lot of attention from the POKEs
and Tips world. Here ara a few
POKEs from Tony Sollars of

GREAT GURIANOS

Leatherhead, Surrey, and David
Wilson from Ayr in Scotland for
Great Gurianos, and Airwotf it,
T II be printing some 3DC POKEs
as soon as I receive some.

'i
• i

•I

1 REM MULTIFACE ONE OWNERS CAN l
1 P BOR E DeKpER0,NK7-.BR 1G HT1: j

CLS

iX^SS»SSSt

AND DAVE"
60 LOAD 4 ' "CODE

110 DATA 33,84,254,1 7,0,64,1,8
170 0^0,237,176,62,0,50,8,91
1^^62.64,50,9,91,195^91

| 150 RANDOMIZE USR 64750

i*

AIRWOLFII

• i
i

• i

•i

•!

•«
•i

•i

•!

• !
•!

^SemmuOimce'one owners can

1 B Srd1^A P ER0,NK7:BR. 6 HT1-.
CLS

ANODAVE"
8 S POkIS-0: POKE 64944,0: POKE
^i^^SoA-KE

110 DATA 33,84,254,17,0,64,1, 8
120 DATA 0.237,176,62,0,50,8,91

DATA

150 RANDOMIZE USR64752

m

>
i«

I*

!■

ni

^

j

JON NORTH

IPs that time of the month again when everything in goes mad at
CRASHTowerc.ii. f POKEsfor metosfrft

This month, after much deliberation, I ms Star Fox and

Rockrnan routines for your delectation. The Star Fox routine fixes

a's vuhon you run out of fuel the game carries on. The
Rockman routine proffers the profligate cheat infli

STAR FOX

NORTH
20 CLiAB25300: LETT=O rt
30FORF=32768TO32850

40 READ A: POKE F,A
50 LETT-T+tF-32758) A: NEXT F
fin 1FT-501844THEN STOP
70 LOAD ?^CODE:RUr4USR 32837
80 DATA 50.21 ,255,122,254
90 DATA 46,192,62,50,50
1 00 DATA 84,205,33.21 ,255
110 DATA 34,85,205,62.195
120 DATA 50,58,91 ,33.32
130 DATA 128.43,59,91, 195
140DATA0.91.50.107.92
1 50 DATA 33,49.1 28.1 7,204
160DATA91,1,11,0.237 '
170 DATA 176,195,61.91,175

180 DATA50.36 1 140.195,31
90 DATA 231 .128,223,1 81, 209
200 DATA 177,1 44,141 ,139.1 51
210 DATA 206,198.199.200,62
220 DATA 205,50.84,205,33
230 DATA0,128,34.85,2O5
240 DATA 195,0,205

•l
•J

•I

•I

#i

L*

\m

u

>

>

BOOKMAN

• ' 10 REM ROCKMAN BY JON NORTH
•'■ 20LETT-0

• J 30 FOR F=32788 TO 32821

• < 40 READ A: POKE FA __ _

• ', »SETT»T + (F-a2758>*^NEXTF
•! 60 IFT=177518 THEN STOP

• i 70 RANDOMIZE USR 32768
*' 80 DATA 33,13,128,17,22
•I 90 DATA 94,1 ,50,0,237
m \ 100 DATA 176,195,22,94,175
3 110 DATA 55,221 ,33,104,94
«', 120DATA61,17,29,3,205

130 DATA 86,5,48,241 .62
140 DATA 95,50,62,95,50
150 DATA 72,95,50.82,95
160 DATA 61, 50,85,95,195
170 DATA 20,95,1 75.50,80
".99

i

!•
I*

180 DATA 145,195 T 56 ? '

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS

Guess what? You always thought James Bond did it through
being clever, macho and English to boot, but as The Living
DayHghts proves, he fiddles, or at least Domaric do, because
there's a cheat mode built into the game. Once it's loaded gates
many points as possible, but rf in trouble press the number 2 and
it whips through the stages. Good eh. This comes courtesy of
Craig Lee Taberner from Fitzwilllam. Thanks Craig.

THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS
(AGAIN)

So I lied, there's more Jon North
than I said, because he's
finished his exams (phewi) and
got beck to some serious hack-
ing, with the result that this
landed on my desk at the last
moment (how it found the space

to touch down on something the
size of a ping-pong bat I don t
know}.

If the 'level' cheat is used, play
the game as norma! and then
press abort (3 and 4 together) to
go to the next level.

• t

10 REM THE UVING DAYLIGHTS

11 REM BY JON NORTH
V 2 r1m CRASH SEPTEMBER 87 £

P0 CLEAR 32970: LET T=0 ,

!SfORF=65280TO66320 £

Su^SS^****" !•

SffT-1«6« THEN STOP >

70 NPUT "LIVES? Y/N"; AS ••
aOFA$i"Y"THEN POKE 65281,0 J.

on WPUT "LEVELS? Y/N ";A$ >•
1M F A$= "Y^THEN POKE65286.2 '

1« RANDOMIZE USR 65293 .

120 DATA 62.53,50,4.- 1 52 [„

I ■n0DATA62,1,50,8.153 ,,

foSATA 195,0 145 221 33 ;.

150DATA203,128.17.124,1 ,

lIS 0ATA62.255 f^OS f 1

i 7n n ATA 5,48 ,24 1 ,62 , 1 28 i

, 8SDATAlb,232,128,62 255 ••

,!lMDATA50.101.129.195.216 ,•

' 200 DATA 128

ATTENTION ALL MULTIFACE
ONE USERS!

Owners of this little gadget are probably averse to typing in long
POKE routines. The easy way to convert normal routines to the Mul-
tlface is quite simple, as Tom Price from Exmouth, Devon explains:

rf the program has a long data statement at the end, look near the end of

the statement tor a 1 75 followed by a 50. The two n umbers after it are the

POKE. For example look at Ghost Hunters (pBae53 in the July CRASH,

Issue 42) - DATA 1 7$,SQ£14,£W - these are the POKES.

To get the actual POKE number type second number '256 + first

number. So here you'd use 216 ' 256 + 214, which is 55510, so POKE

55510.0.

Sometimes there are several pokes to be found this way. as in Army
Moves {same issue, page 57. starting on line 1 1 90) . . .

DATA . . . 183,190, ^5,50,94,209, 50,181 ,190.

221,33,221,33,221,34,99,254,50,101,254. . .

So the pokes work out at ; POKE 53598,0: POKE 4882 1 .0: POKE 85 1 25,0
Easyf (But it doesn"t apply every time . . . }

Here are some POKES for Multif ace One owners who don't
like typing massive listings (laziness is the leisure of the damned
- granny again). They're from Colin Giaister of Warrington and Jay

Salmon of Imrnlngharn,

WONDER BOY 467128; POKE 52974,0

CATCH 23: POKE 4681 3,0 - Infinite gun cartridges

: POKE 61635,0 - Infinite bombs

REBEL POKE 49958,0 - Invulnerability

: POKE 51 1 39,0 - No Irfe loss on laser miss

: POKE 49239,0:POKE 49249,0 - Infinite time

STORM B RINGER (48): POKE 40161 .0

:. POKE 38885,0

: POKE 46702,0

STORM B RINGER (128): <POKE 28208.0

: POKE 29296,0

: POKE 29364,0

: POKE 36469,0

STAR QUDER: POKE 54421 ,0 - Infinite missiles

: POKE 54450,0 - Missile time

JACK THE NIPPER: POKE 44278,58:POKE 44285.58 -Invincibility

■■■bmh

T

Z>

1

Ovtrt-BVGlOrwmap

bacmohe. EquqcTO

SRCw out ei^t to

0£K0
BJPOf

GAME OVER

The Dinamic newie from
Imagine may be giving some
people a few problems (and if It
isn't, what makes you so
clever?), so here are tips from
one S Sneppard of Leconfteld
(somewhere near Hult), which
may be of use. And then there's
also the map of level one from
Mark Hannan.

On the first part, when shooting
open a barrel always try and get in
front of it and shoot back, Th is way
if a bomb comes out you don't
have to jump it. you can just walk
off the screen.

Grenades aren't much use, so
try and save them for screens 1 1
and 1 9 where the hazards are

greater, such as the Giant Orko
and the three giant robots. The
best tip for these screens is to stay
right back at the screen entrance
and crouch down. Shoot
continuously, and when the bullets
aren't coming so fast, leap on the
spot and tob a grenade whilst up in
the air. To avoid the bullets it is
useful {especially on the screen
with the three robots) to duck
down whilst shooting.

For the second part one useful
tip is the location of the POW
screen, which is found by going
down the first lift and continuing
right along the first platform.

To get past the eye at the very
top of the prison you must
repeatedly shoot the top statue (its
eyes will light up) until you obtain a
shield. Also duck down when
shooting robots as their bullets are
at mid-height.

if there's a Muiliface One kicking around you may like to stick in the

Spectrum and enter these codes for Game Ovbt from Marcus and

Conway of Sm it hi I Is, Bolton -there again, you may not . , .

Level One

3933:-

,20 1 infinite power
32416.; blades

Level Two
38691 ,0 infinite lives
38631,201 infinite power
32378,0 infinite grenades

EXOLQN

At last! The long awaited Exolon
POKEs to take some of the pain
out of Hewson's fantastic new
game. Craig Wilkinson from Che-

shire is responsible for the hack,
which came in on a tape - isn't
modern technology wonderful?

10 REM EXOLON CRASH SEPT 87

20 REM BY WICKED WILLY

■M CLEAR 25499: PRINT AT 11,2; PLAY

EXOLON TAPE FROM START": INK 7:

LOAO lt EXOLON"CODE

50 R^d; 2 ^<>999THENPOKEA 1 B:LET

A=A+1:GOTO50
60 RANDOMIZE USR 25500
90 REM DON'T DELETE LINES 100 OR 140

100 3^ 0252.17,80.195,1 ,19.0.237,176,62.20
1 50,99,195,205,8 0,195,33,
184,99,34,111,254,195,19,252

110 62 A o!50,29 l 157,33 ! 0,0,34.125 l 104 l 34 l 77 f 1

12- REM INFINITE LIVES
120 DATA62,0,50,110,131:REM INFINITE

130 DATA 62.0,50,80,146: REM INFINITE
GRENADES

140 DATA 195,96,109,999

For Multiface One owners: Infinite lives: POKE
40221 f 0:POKE 26?49,0:POKE 26750,0:POKE
28749.0:POK£ 28750,0
Infinite bullets; POKE 33646,0
Infinite rockets: POKE 37456,0

CRASH October 1987 59

WONDER BOY MAP

That downright dirty and evil king still has your heart-throb, Tina, so
David Loughton and Anthony Plant have mapped ttia game to make
your quest a mite easier.

SCEPTRE OF BAGDAD

And now, after making you wait
for simply ages, here's what
you've ail been waiting for, the
final part of the Sceptre Of
Bagdad solution from Robert
Gorst. If you're not a regular
CRASH reader (and how come,
seeing as it's illegal not to be?)
the first part was printed in Issue
44 (September, which is last
m onth - so it wasn't that, long to
wait, now was It?).

You should by now have a
MIRROR and a FISH HELMET, Go
back to where you left the
SHARPENED TRUNK, pick it up
and leave behind the FISH
HELMET. Now go to the room
which is one left from the starting
room and enter the door. Slide
down the banister, go left, left
again . walk to the teft and get rfd of
the Medusa, and then go left again
to kill Cyclops . Go al I the way back
to the room to the left of the start
and follow these steps to make a
BOW , QU I VEP and LAMP with the
STRING:

1 . The BOW: Take the WHIP from
the bailcony, one room right
from the start. Then take this to
the shops, and the furthest
room on the right contains a
BULL and WAGON, Jump up to
the wheel's spokes on the
WAGON and you should have a
fufl AXLE. Go to the oyster
room, turn right and replace the

60 CRASH October 1987

axles of the drawbridge. Grab
the SLIPPERS where you left
them and walk across the
drawbridge, Walk right to the
hot coals, walk over these and
keep going until you get to an
island. Take the BOW but don't
drop the SLIPPERS. Walk back
over the coals and drop the
BOW in a place where you can
remember it.

2 The STRING: First get the
INSECT NET from the same
floor as the opening wardrode
and next to the blue and yellow
bean bagf?), take the N ET to the
BEE which came from the HIVE
and it should go. Your NET is
no w f ul I . Go to the first room left
of the starting room and take the
SWORD, without dropping the
NET. Go through the door, slide
down, go right, go towards the
STRING and jump at it to collect
it. Leave the STRING
somewhere safe.

3. The QUIVER: This is easier.
Just go to the empty statue
pedestal, jump to the top erf it,
fall down and take the QUIVER.
leaving it somewhere safe.

4 The LAMP: Take the WHISK
from the room with the
BEACH BALLS, three rooms
away left of the start. Go to the
greeh platform between the two
trees, (past the wardrobe room,
down the stairs and right). Use
the DOOR KEY, go down the
hole, and there should be a

wizard awaiting you, flaiilng his

arms about!
* Now his smoke has gone, walk
towards the lamp and leave it
somewhere safe. Now this is the
order you should collect them:
Pick up the BOW, then the
STRING, drop the STRING, pick
up the QUIVER, drop the QUIVER
and pick up the LAMP, Now go to
the room first left from the start, go
through the door, down the
banister, left, left, and left again
until you get to a SEE-SAW (ahh!).

Walktotheend of the SEE-SAW
then he will aim his BOW and
ARROW at the STRING, the
BOULDER hanging from the
STRING will now drop onto the
other side of the SEE-SAW and
catapult you info the Sceptre
The SCEPTRE is on a
pedestal and you must take it and
gat teteported by the clouds. If you
don't get the SCEPTRE and
teleport then repeat the process
again, starting from the point
marked *,

if you get the SCEPTRE, just
keep going right until you nave
reached the balcony, walk to the
edge and you have completed the
game with 100%

Handy tip; if you can try and get
someone to read out the solution
while you play the game, it's a big
help , but if not, read it on to a tape
and piay it back. But you'd already
thought of that, hadn't you!

SATCOM

Diat the number given on the
inlay (51 5-626 160 same each
game), you will get through to a
company called GLOBAL

Space to return to control,
select ANALYSIS - select DATA
work out code

Dial GLOBAL - enter code.
Select No. 2 on menu - press
Space, select No. 1 on menu -
press Space, a third option
appears, select No. 3 on menu.
Press Space to ret urn- to control,
select ANALYSIS - select DATA
work out code.

Dial GLOBAL, work your way
beck to second code. A
telephone list will be displayed,
note down the Numbers.

There's no point in phoning
NASA yet because SATCOM
cannot work out the code. It is
however, located at CREATIVE
.ELECTRONICS LTD (CEL).

If you dial CON you wilt indeed
be CONned, since ell get is a
system overload.

Dial TECH TRANSMITTERS
LTD fTTL}. Press Space to return
to control, select ANALYSIS -
select DATA, work out code-
Dial TTL - enter code, note down
which satellite has had extra
equipment fitted. Press Space
to return to control.

Dial LION, press Space to
return to control, select
ANALYSIS - select DATA, work
out code.

Dial LION - enter code. Note
down the load code No. for the
AD COUNT DOWN software,
press Space to return to control.

Dial CAMEO LASER
REFRACTORS (CLft) Note down
the colour order of the top four
colour bars, ie (red-purple-
greervblue). press Space to
return to control.

Dial CREATIVE
ELECTRONICS LTD (CEL).

s Space to return to control .
Select ANALYSIS- select DATA,
work out code-
Answer (N) then (Y). Note
down the NASA ideot code and
reverse it. Press Space,

Dial NASA. Enter reversed
code, select correct satellite
(you noted it down) enter AD
COUNT DOWN code (you noted
it down), wait for each number
to he logged, press Space, press
Space again to return to control.
Select ANALYSIS -select DATA,
work out code.

Dial NASA and repeat this
procedure on the other two
codes.

After you enter the third code
(Auto Destrucl) and provided
you are trying to destroy the
correct satellite and the correct
software is loaded (AD COUNT
DOWN), then you will arrive at
the orbital VDU display.

You must now arrange the
coloured boxes in the order ol
the coloured bars in the CLR
advert. The way to do this is to
place the last colour first and
then the second colour, etc.

And that's it, you've earned a
medal! h w

LLOYD'S 'OOOPS I'M
INCREDIBLY SORRY' CORNER

Whooops! If something goes wrong b.'ame the typesetting machine - I

do. A few things went wrong in the August CRASH (Issue 43) too
late to be corrected. Firstfy , . .

FUTURE KNIGHT EDITOR

You have to press the EDIT F and K keys, not the S and K keys as I said
before . Also, if you press the C key you can redefine the graphics anrf X
to get back to the proper ptace. Prodding the D key allows vou to move
back a graphic,

And secondly . . .

HEAD OVER HEELS

. . . in which there were a few incorrect lines. Rather than |ust print those,
here s the whole listing again - correctly this time ...

1 CLEAR 64500

2LETT=0;LFrW=1

5FORF=32000TO32170

10READA:POKEF,A

15 LETT=T+A* W:LETW=W+1

25 F^>1764297THEN PRINVDATA

PRROR ' ' " STOP

30 PRINT AT10,1;"START HEAD OVER

HEELSTAPE"
50 RANDOMIZE USR 32000
100 DATA 221 ,33,203,92.17,234
110 DATA 6,62.255,55,205,86,5
120 DATA 48,241 ,243,237 ,94,33
130 DATA 44,125,229,33,1 73,98
140 DATA 229,51 ,51 ,17,1 63,252
150 DATA 1 ,22,3,33.253,94,62
160 DATA 202,237,79,195,173,98
170 DATA 33,70,1 25,229,33,199
180 DATA 252,229,51 ,51 ,17,209
190 DATA 253,1 ,232.2,33,209,252
200 DATA 62.1 96,237 ,79,1 95,1 99
210DATA252 r 33,209,17,209
220 DATA 138,1 ,92,0.237,176,33
230 DATA 228,1 38,34,233.1 38,34
240 DATA 237.138,33,218,138,34
250 DATA 245,1 38,33,255,1 38 34
260 DATA 9,139,62,195,50,29,139
270 DATA 33,116,125,34,30,139
280 DATA 195,209,138,175,50
290 DATA 166,256,62.195,50,99
300 DATA 255,33,250,250,34.100
310 DATA 255,33.145,125.17 250
320 DATA 250,1 ,50,0,237,1 76,1 95
330 DATA 55,255,33,0,0,34,1 13
340 DATA 163,33,34,25,34,1 15
350 DATA 163,62.33,50,120 163
360 DATA50,123,163,49,255,255
370 DATA 195,48,1 12

And thirdfy ... the POKEs for Monty On The Run had one line missing,
line 30 should read LOAD" "CODE. It must be my eyesight's getting
bad, because I could have sworn it was right on John Bramtey's letter.
Stilt, thanks to Andrew Swain for pointing that one out, and I'm sorry tor
any inconvenience it may have caused (but cheats never prosper, my old
granny told me).

A FEW CHEAT
MODES

A being authentically called
Thistle from Scotland sent in
some really useful cheat modes
and codes for brand new games.
And F R Stewart finished oft the
list with some cheats for Cobra
and Jack The Nipper.

EXOLON Go to redefine keys
mode and then type ZOBRA for

infinite lives.

ROAD RUNNER While in the
options screen, and during the
scrolling message, press RTHB
together for infinite lives, and
WVKLO to see the end sequence,

MOUNTIE MICK'S DEATHRIDE

Once the game has started, press
K once to become invulnerable to

bullets.

COBRA Press the Space bar and
Z or X, and it slows everything
down.

JACK THE NIPPER Go to the
police station with the horn and
toot it at the safe Your
naughtiness will rise,

HEAD OVER
HEELS

Folfowmg the POKEs I printed
two months ago. the intrepid
duo now have a cheat to help
them in their quest. It comes
courtesy of Scott Dickson from
bonny Scotland.

1) Guide Head right., through the
door until he comes up a

wall, (swap) Turn Heels tofac ;•
wall. Now swrtch bask to Head and
keep the fire button pressed .
When Head jumps "o his full

edly tap the swap

md head jumps over the wait
If it doesn't work first ume , lei go of

-: Outtons and try again (but
you must start with Headjumping).

2) What's the use of that.' I
you cry. Well for a start it saves
time and elfort on the 'bag'
screen. And by the way, io get
Head and Heels bach over the
wall, put Heels on top of Head

against rhewaN'i. keep -
firebul dand repeal

tap the swap key This gets Heels

then to get Head
over the wail repeat stage one.

ZYNAPS

To kick off with here's a POKE routine for Hewsen's July snoot-em-
up Smash. Jt comesfrom a person with the discreet name of Mel the
Cheat. You can chose invincibility and 1-255 lives,

10 REM ZYNAPS POKE CRASH OCT 87
20 REM BY MEL THE CHEAT
30 BORDER 0: PAPER 0: INK 7
40 CLEAR 32767

60 li^UT "HOW MANY LIVES (1 -255)?'*;N
70 INPUT "INVINCIBLE (Y/N)? 1 *^
80 IF A$="Y" THEN LET 1=201 -
90 PRINT AT 1 1 ,0;'START ZYNAPS TAPE
FROM START"

100 LOAD" 'CODE

110 POKE 64531 ,214

130 RANDOMIZE USR 64512

140 POKE 651 15,15

150 FOR 1=23311 TO 23323
160 READ A: POKE FA NEXT F
170 DATA 62,N t 50.208,175
180 DATA 62,1,50,95 J 55
190 DATA 195,0,128
200 RANDOMIZE USR 65062

Of alternatively, if you have a Muttiface One, Marcus & Damian
Conway have discovered these POKEs for you. POKE 45454 0: POKE
45425,0: POKE 45426.0 which gives you Infinite lives; and POKE
39/75.201 which provides invincibility.

Well, that's the fun over for another month. Thanhs tor all your
contributions. Out piease stop alt the letters with SAEs because i
can't reply to them. !f you're desperate to get tips on older games,
I'm afraid you'll just have to get back numbers from the appropriate
division of News field Empires Inc (talk to Aunt Aggie, aka Carol
Kinsey, aka she who fives in the basement). Don't forget to send all
your tips and POKEs to the usual address, which is LLOYD
MANGRAM'S PLAYING TIPS, CRASH, PO BOX 10. LUDLOW,
SHROPSHIRE SYS 1DB. As for me (seeing as how it's how the small
hours), I'm oft for a well-earned cup of tea.

CRASH October 1987 61

a piece o

'prestige ACTIVISION
action

FOUR
GAMES FOR
£6!!!

.^

worth
£9.99

The Lucasfilm
Prestige
Compilation -
yours for only £6
(including p&p) -
contains two
tapes with . . .

BALLBLAZER

In this maddeningly addictive sport of the
future, two daredevil drivers hop into their
Rototoiis and prepare to blaze along a
3-D pitch in an attempt to hurl a olasmorb
(ball) between the goal posts. Only three
rules: three-minute matches, two players
{one human, oneandrold), and one victor.

KORONISRIPT

Future garbage-collecting can be
profitable - especially on a planet such
as Karaite, Scavenge me planet's 20 rifts
collecting valuables from bumt-out hulks
of ancient spaceships. Remember to
avoid the alien forces who swarm the
planet - theif base is on Rift 20. Koronfs
Rift Matures Ujcasfilm's fractal graphics
system.

THE EIDOLON

•torn Intrepid inventor Or Josef Ago
craft Ute Eidolon as he travels through
the inner recesses of his subconscious.
Cavern walls move realistically with me
fractal graphics, and turning unexpected
earners reveals many a horrific beast. Go
through all seven levels to escape back to
reality.

RESCUE ON
FRACTALUS

Fractalus Is (he stronghold of the Jaggles,
man-eating space pirates. Your fellow
fighters have been stranded on this
godforsaken planet after launching an
attack on the Jaggles, and your task
is to rescue them. Flying through the
mountainous terrain tsnt easy,
especially when you're pursued by
the powerful Jaggles In this addictive
exptaattangame.

READERS'
OFFER

Well, I'll be fraetalled! Seeing as how I can buy Acrivislon's Lucasfilm
Prestige Collection at almost £4 cheaper than it is in the shops, what am
I waiting for? In fact I'm not waiting - I've written a cheque/postal order
for £6 made payable to N EWSFIELD LTD (or V m paying by credit card),
and the rest is up to you.

NAME ......

ADDRESS

POSTCODE

Send the form off with your payment, and the compilation will be whisked
towards you quicker than you can say ' please allow 28 days for delivery '
and ' offer closes 30 October 1 967 ' .

PLEASE DEBtT MY VISA/ACCESS ACCOUNT £

I wish to pay by Visa/Access (delete as applicable)

Signature

Expiry Date

Please Charge My Account No:

□

SEND FORM TO: CRASH/ ACTIVISION OFFER,
PO BOX 20, LUDLOW, SHROPSHIRE SY8 1DB

DADDY,

WHERE WERE

YOU WHEN

STARTED?

The CRASH 6* Spectrum Software History

a four-part series lo collect

On the facing page starts the first in a series of four 24-page pull-out
supplements, which will build up into a history of Spectrum software
over the past four years. And in the December' and Christmas Special
issues of CRASH a complete index to every game ever reviewed in
CRASH will be printed to add to the part work.

Each month's supplement consists of 12 CRASH covers , presented
as they were originally printed (or as nearly as wc can recreate one or
two of the earlier ones), backed by a short article written by Lloyd
Mangram, detailing events in the month of the cover.

He talks about the games reviewed , the software houses involved and
reactions to the software, all set against a background of how CRASH
happened. Intimate stories, many never before revealed, illustrate the
problems besetting the small team which launched GRAS H and explain
how it grew to be the magazine it is today.

Il may seem self-indulgent publishing our own" history after only
four years, but these have been a frenzied 1 ,460 days- and it isn't only
our own history, but also thai of the Spectrum' computer and the
enormous number of people who because of their interest, faith and
imagination made it the most successful of machines.

This is a retrospective^ not a funeral , a celebration and not a wake.
The four years* worth of covers are concluded in the Christmas Special,
Issue 48. In the New Year CRASH will be offering a spceial binder in
winch to keep the part work of covers as well as the index, which will
list every software review, playing up and map ever published in
CRASH - and many of the features and interviews besides.

It's not yet known what price this binder will be, but details will be
published in CRASH before Christmas.

And now over to Lloyd . . .

Phase note: the supplement ts not field by its mm staples. Carefully lever up
the two staples holding ike entire issue, and lift out the 24 pages' You can
then press the staples together again to keep the magazine irtiact. The
supplement pages vah eventually be held together by the binder. The
CRASH History will be numbered continuously from page t to 96, not as
part of the magazines.

I

"BRUAF

ES ACT

ft*,". v

THE BIGGEST
SPECTRUM
SOFTWARE
MAGAZINE . . .

OVER 400

GAMES

REVIEWED

1JM

February 1984
Issue No* 1

Released on
January 13th

Tht Chairman', as fu*s Hm knovm, foq / boardrmn.-

first covw of CRASH was not based on any particular game, bus t>iak ii$

inspiration from Use chrome-teethed, mm-:.

Alien. Fn, ,,!,: gag at

refined m kistyes. t h, j .

hap off the news shelves, and to dieim to the world that CRASH vms very

diffmat to cuxhr ,. M pf,ocagr.

hardtt/i

Work started on ihe first issue of CRASH well before Christmas 1983. The editorial l
which was Eo remain unchanged for three months, consisted of Roger Kean„ Oliver J
Lloyd Mangram and Matthew Uffindell, a 17-year-oW who had been buying software from
Crash Micro Games Action mail order. As he lived nearby, he popped in to purchase games
and somehow never quite left. Many of CRASH'S early reviewers were recruited in this
fashion. Matthew now works in Newsfieid's an department as a senior film planner - one of
the people who put the images on film, ready lor the printers.

At the 1983 PCW Show, held at the Barbican that year, Roger Kean and CRASH financial
director Franco Frey roved around the stands trying to convince software houses that a really
new magazine was about to arrive. Interest was generally hike warm, but nevertheless, by
mid- December when the issue had tube ready, 27 pages of advertising had been sold -enough
to provide CRASH with the funds to print!

The original concept behind CRASH had been to provide a low-key, low-cost magazine,
mostly in monochrome, to attract the numerous software houses who couldn't afford the
advertising rates of the existing glossies, so several of the first issues were printed on cheap
newsprint with a heavier colour section wrapped around. As it turned out, most advertisers
opted for colour advertisements and so gradually CRASH became as glossy (and as expen
to advertise in) as the rest. It was while Roger was driving to Milton Keynes to watch the first
colour coming off the press thai he was stopped by die police for speeding - at 3.30 in the
morning. On explaining to the officers that he was rushing to a birth, he was let off with a
caution. He's never broken a speed limit since . . .

Issue One had lots to offer, including an amazing 60 reviews, the first lime ever so much
space had been devoted to Spectrum games. Among them were notables like Zaxxan from
Siarzone, a bunch of youngsLers who later got inio a legal wrangle with US Gold when the
official version oiZaxxon was released, Bugaboo (The Flea) from Quicks iJva, which got 92%
and would have been a Smash had there been Smashes in those davs, and of course the Game
of the Month, jVticromega's 3-D Deathchase - still a great thrill' to plav. Programming
innovations were still largely a thing of the future, bui Sandy White's A m Attack (QtadEsfliva)
raised some eyebrows, although I remember Matthew andl feeling that it lacked something
in thegameplay.

Then there was the fabled Living Guide, which was to run for the firsi four issues before
it became too unwieldy to cope with. Ii listed every game you could lav vour hands on tin
classified headings like 'Platformers', k Maze Games" and so on. Matthew and another young
reviewer, Chris Fassey, provided a comparison of Invader/Galaxian games in Run It Again.
Franco reviewed and compared joystick interfaces, we launched the first ever readers* hotline
chart, and offered readers the chance to become a CRASH reviewer in a competition. ,
Interestingly, one of m runner-up was a young man by the name of John Minson, but more
oi him much later . . .

We also profiled Rabbit Software, Blaby Games and Carnell, who were finishing their
much-heralded Wrath ofMagra. And to round off, I did my first ever lookback at the software
year. The weakest spot in that firsi CRASH (and for several issues) was the lack of a proper
adventure reviewer. Buried deep in the Living Guide were mini reviews of Star Trek and
Vdnor's Lair, two games from a tiny outfit called Neptune, operated by one Dt
Brewster . . .

2 The CRASH History

MARCH 1964

MICRO GA,

THE BIGGEST
SPECTRUM
SOFTWARE
MAGAZINE

OVER 400

GAMES

REVIEWED

BRITAIN'S FIRST

PHONE-IN

TOP SOFT CHART

REACH FOR THE
STAR ZONE

ROLL OUT THE
BARREL

Kong games - we compsr

CUP ON - SPEAK OUT

Currah /^Speech
& cursor joysticks

ARCADE ADVENTURE STFtATe
SIMULATION EDUCATION UTILITIES

March 1984
Issue No, 2

Released on
February 16th

(Jommg from a film-making background, Oliver Ftey Imies powerful images and
clastic Thirties and Forms monochrome movies, interests never better reflected
ifwti in the second CRASH cover. It celebrated the proliferation of Donkey
Kong clones on the Spectrum at the time, and related to the Run It Again article
in the issue comparing Mario's many attempts ic rescue his girt from the overgrown
ape*s clutches. Note Kong's cavalier treatment of the Spectrum itself- OH
to use the computer repeatedly in cover illustrations as a player . .•, quite

revolutionary in 1984.

It was a bit of a conceit to state on the cover 'Over 400 Games Reviewed* (345 were in the
Living Guide), but the gung-ho exclamation ideally indicates the small CRASH team's
euphoria at public reaction to Issue One — we wanted everyone to know that we were the
biggest and ihe best!

Attitudes within the trade were equally invigorating; several specialist shops acclaimed
CRASH as the long-awaited Spectrum Bible, Even Computer & Video Games sent us a
congratulations card, but I fear they saw us as no competition, merely a local fanzine to be
encouraged; few people at the time realised that as many as 50,000 copies of Issue One sold
nationally. It was a heady figure and one not to be repeated for quite some time.

February's weather* however, brought CRASH down to earth. The schedule ran late.
Oliver worked for 30 hours nonstop to complete Terminal Man, while John Edwards, newly-
recruited advertisement manager, stood anxiously by, waiting to take the layout boards down
to the London printer who wanted to start at 9, 30am. John had to catch the 6am (rain from
Birmingham New Street. At 4am on a freezing winter morning Oliver finished, but Roger
Kean (who was still working on the Living Guide) did not.

At Sam, the boards still four pages incomplete, Roger drove John the 40 miles to
Birmingham through a heavy snow storm. After ten minutes they were stuck on a steep hill
outside Ludlow. Turning back to try another route, they came across a skidded lorry with its
nose in a ditch. The unfortunate driver turned out to be a local newstrade wholesaler,
delivering magazines to Ludlow. Seeing the CRASH boards, as they gave him a lift back into
town, the driver exclaimed excitedly. He owned a Spectrum and had loved the first issue. So
there they were, John frustrated, Roger struggling with the terrible conditions , and a mad
lorry driver who wanted nothing more than to talk about high scores on Lunar Jetmanl

They got through in the end, the printer did the job in time, and Issue Two did arrive. To
many people's horror, there were /few Games Oi The Month ('confusing to have so many,'
wrote one reader), and in their very different ways they indicated that Spectrum games were
improving rapidly and almost beyond belief. Top was Ultimate's classic Atic Atac, but
Android 2 showed Costa Panayi flexing his muscles for Vortex with the best 3-D effects yet
seen . Like the first two, Krakama (Abbex) offered large graphics which were a novelty in early
84, combined with complex gameplay and a wicked sense of humour (also a rare commodity).
Scuba Dive (Durell) also boasted large and effectively fishy graphics with interestingly
different game objectives, while Microsphere's Wheelie was to prove one of the most addictive
games of the year.

We also ran our first 'real' competition, for Fantasy, promoting Doomsday CastU. It was
so successful that it set the pattern for an increasing number of competitions thereafter.

Because of their oddly uneconomic arrangement, games only offering the cursors for
control lost percentage points badly in those days! But we praised small-company
inventiveness in an article examining some joysticks which were actually attached to the
Spectrum to physically manipulate the cursed cursors. Franco had a good listen to Currah's
ahead-of-its-time speech unit, and Hewson's Steve Turner was interviewed as well as the four
lads from Starzone,

I also had quite a few letters to print and answer - among them was a complaint that at five
pounds, the price of software was far too high. Things never change . . .

4 The CRASH History

ARCADE
APOCALYPSE

MISSILE COMMAND' Comparison

HOLMES & HURG

Full review oi the fabulous H.UR.G
from MELBOURNE HOUSE

April 1984
Issue No. 3

Released on
March 22nd

This cover first demonstrated Oliver Fuy's ability to combine several disparate
elements into one picture, ft related to an article an Melbourne House and
Australian Philip Mat-hell, wko programmed The Hobbit and was working on
the very delayed Sherlock Holmes. Melbourne's H.U.R.G. (High l^vel User-
Friendly Real Time Games Designer) had nothing to do with Philip, but zoos
reviewed in the issue., so Oliver melded the two ideas by having Sherlock peer
through his magn ifying gloss in tokick is reflected (backwards) a clue to H . U . R , G .

With monthly pressures getting tough, we all welcomed the arrival in Ludlow of David
Western, a one-time colleague of Roger Kean. David lenta valued hand to the artwork layout,
allowing Roger to concentrate more on ihe writing and planning. The stress is plainly seen in
the cover, which had no issue number, and on the contents page, where Roger happily but
erroneously stated it was Issue Four! David, now Newsfield's Production Controller, was
(and still is) an excellent photographer, and the marked improvement in our screen shots was
noted.

Taking pictures from a monitor is no simple matter, and all CRASH had at the time was a
rented 14-inch telly! I can remember getting in the engineer to look at it because all the colour
was being pulled into one corner leaving the rest black-and-white. The bemused man took it
away and brought another, shaking his head, saying only a strong magnet could produce such
an effect. I refrained from telling him that David had been waving his very powerful light
meter over the screen - it contained a massive magnetic field 1

Further improvements in picture quality had to wait until the wonderful Microvitec Cub
moniior arrived for review, but with David's ministrations, people everywhere began praising
our colour screen shots, at least (they appear so fuzzy now).

CRASH was, unwittingly, about to unleash a media war. We regarded ourselves as
specialist enthusiasts, and so news of any program in progress excited us, and we wanted to
convey that feeling to the readers. We were also very chatty with software houses, so it came
as no surprise that we were easily able to get very advanced screen shots of Matthew Smith's
unfinished Jet Set Willy, possibly the most eagerly awaited game of all time. As a result,
CRASH was the first to print pictures , despite plenty of interest in the project from other
magazines.

On top of that, through close and friendly relations with Micromega, we were also the first
to spot the potential of Code Name Mat by Derek Brewster. When it was first shown to us, it
had no name, and the joke became current thai Mat referred to Matthew Uffindell, the
CRASH reviewer who was the first player in the country to get his hands on it- and who
knows, it may be true!

All this frenzied previewing activity put CRASH markedly ahead of the other magazines
at the time, but they soon started fighting back and the scrabble for advance information was
on in earnest. The trick, however, w r as not only to be first with words and pictures, but also
to spot the real winners. We weren't always right . . .

Issue Three showed another improvement - the paper. The printer was changed and
CRASH went fully glossy. Games Of The Month were given a logo on the review page instead
of being bunched up at the start, the first of these being Blue Thunder (Richard Wilcox, soon
to be absorbed by his family into Elite Systems), Cavern Fighter from Bug-Byte, and Night
Gunner by Digital Integration. Although Matthew, Roger and I liked Blue Thunder , there was
an adverse reaction from some readers, but everyone seemed agreed that the graphically
uninspiring Cavertt Fighter was a damned good * Scramble' game.

Hardware novelty object was Stack's Light Rifle, which caused battles between Matthew
and Chris Passey to use it. It was fun but hardly earxhshatteringly good, and it's amusing
now to see the games consoles bringing the idea back- with somewhat more accurate results.

Oh, and we did the first ever CRASHtionnaire to find out how well readers thought the
magazine was doing.

6 The CRASH History

SWEET TALKING

'a.

&&

A

No4 MAY 1964
75p

ADVENTURE

DRIPPING GOLD

s THE QUILL spawns
monsters

Time to set off on our

ADVENTURE TRAIL

WALKING
THE PLANK

i Piracy

YBOARD
REMBRANDTS

)raw Uti

'

'

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^

May 1984
Issue No, 4

Released on
April 26th

dying principally on the dynamics of a tergc, potwrfid face for a ewer

mage, Ottwr turned his attention u> the adventure market. He'd done many

itlttstrmumsfar books deolingvtith mystery and horror suhiccts, ^ since to many

I vm Matured evil mzards and sorters, the ckarawr on this corner sprung

easty mougl '^usswn, however, revealed jhm Oliver was unhapft

'^J^Mputare because- irdian'tsemto.hamaf& computer
Roger suggested addmg the 'tohal now* cursor to the eye and the visual gag was
COmp *-

Reflecting the coyer and probably because he felt guilty at not covering adventure games as
much as he should have done, Roger Kean spent many hours writing an adventure with
Gilsoft s new machine code utility, The Quill As 1 can testify, the result was quite
unpunishable but ; the ume wasn't wasted because he managed id write a fulsome article on
the use of The QmU, as well as reviewing several Gilsoft Quitted adventures.

This was a time when young hopeful programmers expected to get their games accepted tor
publishing tor the simple reason that they had written them. To some professional
programmers The Quill seemed a frightening idea, a means of making adventure- writing
simple, so anyone could do it and take away their living. But The Quill was a tool , not a source
of inspiration, and it proved that there can never be any substitute for imagination

SoU with adventures, Issue Four saw the modest beginning of Derek Brewster's Adventure
Trail. For some weeks, Derek had been persuading Roger thai CRASH desperately needed
someone who understood the genre to write a proper column. Politically* appointing Derek
to the chair wasagoodmove.for he had a pedigree both with adventure andarcade games (his
Code Name Mat was one of the CRASH Smashes, which made their first appearance in this
is lie too), rhere were a lot of points to be earned for the still-struggling magazine by having
a notable like Derek write font- and it was a nice one in the eye for the more established titles'

In addition to Code Name Mai, with its complexity of 3-D space gameplay, others in the
new Smash breed included two from Software Projects, > Set Willy (about to cause havoc
by being both immensely exciting to play and containing the famous 4 Auic Bug 1 that stopped
you from completing the game!) and the appealing but difficult nibble Trouble. Steve Turner
finally got his reward for long service with a Smash for Hewsons 3-D Limanack, and for
further pushing forward the barriers of his major interest., realistic -perspective games.

It was also a time when large concerns not normally involved in computer games cried
testing the water. One of the biggest, Thorn EMI , launched some games through its label,
Creative Sparks, and Ore Attack became a Smash, not so much for its graphics, which were
amusing, but for its fiendishly difficult gameplay. Creative Sparks was to have a roller-coaster

Lilly ending up as Creative Sparks Distribution, which recently went into
receivership.

Bui one small, as yet unknown, software house made its first appearance in CRASH that
month with a game we reatly liked, one largely ignored by other magazines.'It vm Ad Astra
and the programmers had thought, perhaps, of calling themselves Gargoyle Games

This was the issue where we revealed the CRASH Reviewers competition results. The blurb
noted that the winner had won by a faint margin. One of the runners-up was a certain John
Minson. To think, had the margin been a touch fainter hecould have been writingfor CRASH
atafracuon of the exorbiiantfeehenow commands! Well, we all make mistakes. Looking at
Jus entry, there s little to suggest that this man will one day turn into a voracious Jigger of
vituperative prose and metamorphose into the Hunter S Minson we all know and .

May's Living Guide dealt with board games, simulations, strategies and adventures At the
end it said Next Month: Arcade Games*, but the Guide had become too huge to fit in s and too
much effort for the overworked team - it was destined never to return.

8 The CRASH History

ES ACTION

'

El!

THE

I
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SPECTRUM
SOFTWARE

MAG

GAMES TIPS
- HELPLINE
\ CRASHLIN
. ADVENT*
UTILIT!

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PSS CRASH QUIZ

MICROMANIA

^

ULTIMATE
MELBOURNE HOUSE

Fll STACK
m" CDS

June 1984
Issue No. 5

Released on
May 24th

^^e^kafulofpage-campressedface I efalu^mmsier,,giaiaapesJam<ms
detectives and evd warlocks, Oliver broke out tath this space acorn cover No
particular game tuts m mind apart from the defender/scramble concept, bur the
idea for a canyon constructed of game cassettes mis K oger K«,n ',. It was a typical
sttuatvm m tke early days for Olive, to think up an ilea, for Roger. David or
Matthew to rework ft as a visual gag, tohich Oliver would then implement so
marestmgly. An d this pkttae long remained a favourite with readers

The cover slogan,]^ ONE BIG Spectrum Software MAG, wasn't merely bombast, it was
l£ W T"7 Pmdy ° {B ' g!Cs l0g °- B * K was «"*" e *™ple of largecorpo alon
ourc^rTh^ h ^ ll ^. strode » cress I""" we at CRASH regarded as peculiarly
we were the only really serious ones - that's called having your cake and eaiing it)

ttJ^A. 3t ■ COnteMS Page ° fIsSU£ Fivc ' ^ ^ thal strite me no* « that of all
the sections competitions was actually the biggest - seven DIYs - proving the point mat we
recognised thor popularity. But one of those competitions stands ouZSv,Ta*" Z
map.Gamemaps were unheard of in publications in 1984-it simply hadn'i occu^rS to anyone
fi*t mappmga g*»e was relevant, but there was no doubt that some games ; being produced
were actually made up from maps in the programmers' minds. AticAtac was tS sue > and
certainly one where having a map before yon helped playing it. There was also the fc« Sat

teZ aer !Sf r P r h H UpSC ; "*»«"«« h <™*> *>' Ues stayed u" s tp S
far longer then tfan they do today. It was definitely a feather in the CRASH cap tosfgn a

uZ™,T f Wth ^'°f *' ^ themagically successful software house wasfrSally

™T^ H 6 Wlth S* Publi<: and pre$s ' La,er > «^ edit^ Tim MeKatf even

complied good-naturedly to Roger Kean about the secret CRASH pipeline to a5

Maps were the latest thing; Issue Five saw the inaugural edition of the Playing Tips Mv

he n fi Th e r P f n i ed 7* l bt f n """"I*"** *e erudite scribblings of readl "in^dded
helpfiil hints to their letters. Among those had been primitive Atk Aloe maps, and ore orTwo
reasonable versions otjet Sei Willy's terrifying mansion. The best, bvTS KW film
Notts wasavidlypoured over by Roger Kean (who got A level geography at™) He SD^m
an entire weekend checkmgitoutagainstAegame.usingahan^Lel^^^
b^ «mta5»«ic tacfcer, and drawing up his own map which'ttoSS^W?
thanking Kenneth for his inspiring version. '

ani'S 41 . 3 treDd! fr0t ? thiSp ° im ° n CRASH would have t0 ■»« ™l* whenever possible
d£ S3?h P 7? Pr u" V ?"* " OW) al0Dg ** ' fr0m levds 17 " 24 ° f Ctadto Egg, both

IfLZ ^ ^ ra ° n0chromatk lule d « wi »g S °ad been used so extensively^ on a
plain-coloured background, providing a tremendouslv detailed effect

DtaZT^i?^ "^ i""' ^ had ■* found a Smash in Hewson's Fantasia

10 The CRASH History

o

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5AMES ACTION

No 6 July 1984 75p

^^L.

►

CRASH takes an

in-depth look at

perspective in gar

SABRE
WULF

i

DEREK BREWSTER S

ADVENTURE TRAIL SNOWBALLS!

^ 2-PART PULL-OUT MAP OF

ATIC ATAC

July 1984
Issue No. 6

Released on
June 28th

This cover is unique, for to date n is iht oniy one thai \ photograph.,

a then one of Oliver's- artwork. Relating to an article about )-D games, the
■r's them? was taken from the naoh released ftfm Raiders Of The Lpsc Ark.
'/fidic' is seen threatening a statue- bearing a Spectrum, ravaged la form ike
characters 3D. The foreground and background were also painted artvwrk, hut
when the three layers were set up one behind the ether rather lik* a cardboard ■•lag?
set, tie soft focus created a thtee-dimeftsitmal effect.

CRASH was rapidly expanding, both in scope and in the people who worked for h, at least
on a casual basis. As Kean, Frey and Western fiddled around in the * studio' (in reality Roger's
bedroom) setting up the various bits and pieces for the cover shot and getting the lighting and
focus just right, downstairs another mail-order-buying youngster tried his hand at writing a
test review (of Rabbit's dreadful Deatkstar, if my memory serves). He was 13-year-old Robin
Candy, who, to his eternal embarrassment, appeared in a photograph sitting cross-legged on
a Spectrum wearing a CRASH T-shirt as pari of the Hotline spread.

Roger reckoned the test was satisfactory, and Robin joined the reviewing team along with
Matthew Ufrindell, Chris Passey and one or two other Ludlow locals.

Three other newcomers made their first appearance, Signpost in the Adventure Trail,
Ultimate's enduring Lunar Jetman comic strip drawn by John Richardson, and at the end of
the Playing Tips, my Hall Of Slime, which lasted up until recently when I thought it had
finally had its day. Nearly every other magazine ran high-score tables for readers, usually
called HalJ Of Fame or Roll Of Honour. When asked to do the same in CRASH I thought it
would be boring to repeat the formula, and since none of the scores printed elsewhere seemed
to be checked out for truthfulness (and how can you all too often? % and the whole high-scoring
ethos seemed reminiscent of 'creeping' at school, 1 opted for the Hall Of Slime - a special
home for high-scoring creepie-crawlies. It worked a treat!

The centre spread saw our first ever colour map, part one of the AticAtac plan, done with
the help of competition entries. But the amazing feature of this issue was the mammoth article
Roger prepared on 3-D games to date. 14 pages long, it examined the nature of 3-D
perspective and then showed how each form had been implemented on the Spectrum through
some 60 games. Once again* in many respects it was a 'first '; no other entertainment computer
magazine had ever attempted such an exhaustive, or long, feature before. And it went ago
the traditionalist grain - publications aimed at a teenage market were supposed to present
short, snappy articles in recognition of the short attention span of young people. It was an
outmoded concept CRASH threw away, we all believed our readers capable of reading long,
detailed and intelligent pieces (even when we were often forced to listen to some surprisingly
fluent obscenities on the Hotline answering machine!).

Despite the onset of the summer months, software was holding up well. Five games were
Smashed, the oddly-named Worse Things Happm At Sen from Silversoft, which was
maddeningly addictive and funny, Rug Byte's Antics, the very playable high-scoring game
Moon Alert from Ocean, an adventure Smash in Level 9's Snowball - first 6f the famous
trilogy - and the dubiously-acclaimed Sake Wulf&otn Ultimate. There's no doubt it should
have been a Smash - it's just that it arrived so late in the month we hardly had time to play it
enough, and copped out by not rating it at all!

Up until this moment, CRASH had been produced from a house, really from just two small
rooms, but the company's finances had improved sufficiently to afford proper offices. As
Issue Six came towards completion, Newsfield leased three floors of a building in Ludlow.
We were all looking forward to being able to stretch out a bit, to be able to write and do the
artwork in less cramped quarters.

12 The CRASH History

FULL THROTTLE (migromega*
& RAPSCALLION (bug byte)

SUMMER

COMPETITION SPECIAL

8 ACE COMPETITIONS & 100s OF PRIZES!!

OVER £3,000 IN VALUE FROM:

Lothlorien * Melbourne House
Micromega *PoppySoft*R&R
Realtime *Ultimate*Crash

:. .' ■;•--- ■-,

ni

!■>'

Fiji. L. THROTTlS -.«« ,:

* pjirsGALift'M

tn/Mv*

,, m

SPECIAL

Miun»n*«ut ■ »"«W*I' «**

August 1984
Issue No, 7

Released on
July 26th

Right from the start Oliver had been illustrating CRASH loiri a rmxture of

action-packed comic-strip pictures and gentler, more humorous cartoons of
■tity-shaped alien beings. The latter became wry popular Kith readers, tvko
dubbed them 'OH bugs'. They can still be seen at ike top of the editorial page today.
To mark the holiday season. Other gone dynamic game- themes a rest - and the
bugs a cover. A typical CRASH reader relaxes with friends on ike sands of sane
fat off planet, atmptelt with a I . >i he needs - a monitor, joystick and his

Spectrum.

During July, as the August issue was being written, Newstield moved into its new premi
in King Street - in spirit, if not in fact. Hold ups over the lease meant that we were
crammed like sprats in a pickling jar in Roger's house where we had started out.

Space wasn't the only concern, the need for more professional equipment to produce the
magazine's black-and-white pictures had led to the procurement of a large, computer-operated
process camera. It was important to have it, and it had been thought that there would be space
to put it. The machine arrived in July with no home, but the directors took the risk of
installing it in the new offices hoping thai the lease problems would be sorted out quickly
Fortunately they were, although not in time for this edition. The camera went on the third
floor and weighed a ton; it would have been awful to have had to carry it all the way down
again!

Out in the wide world, a terrible event had taken place: the great British software hope.
Imagine, had collapsed owing fortunes, including several thousand pounds of advertising
revenue to CRASH. At the time, it seemed to be the most visible tip of an iceberg of financial
strains for the software industry, and directly led to the notion of the summer software slump,
a concept that's stayed with us ever since.

And yet this issue provided some excellent games. The three arcade Smashes were
Micro-something-or-others. There was Mieromega's marvellous bike road-racer, Full
ThrottUy Micromania's Kosmic Kanga and Mikro-Gen's Auiomania, Of the last, the review
kicked off saying 'Meet a new hero . . . Waily Week is destined for big things . . . 'It wasn't
a psychic prediction but a reference to the pay rise he hoped to get from working hard in a
car factory. Now, it's a matter of history that Mr Week was indeed destined to become very
big. The other biggie was Beyond *s Lords Of Midnight, which had finally arrived and sent
Derek into paroxysms of delight. It set *new high standards in Spectrum software,' he
declared .

Among those that just missed being a Smash were Ocean's Camion, another Panayi 3-D
game from Vortex, TLL and 3-D Tank Duel, this last from a new software house called
Realtime, now developers of many Spectrum games for large companies. One of the three
programmers, Andrew Onions, was originally from Ludlow, His parents lived five doors
away from Roger Kean (incidentally, the house is now rented by Richard Eddy and
some others from Newsfield). Everyone loved Tank Duel, the best-ever implementation of
thai old arcade original, Batthzone. But we were also aware mat the review could be called
biased if the Ludlow connection became recognised, so Matthew Ufhndell and Chris IV
were kept in the dark as to who Andrew Onions was!

Advertising was becoming increasingly more professional, better images, better designs
and more impact. Along with the improvement, however, came an additional helping of hype
-classier boasting doesn't necessarily mean a classier product. The more pre-release exposure
a game received , the harder it could fall - companies too. One such game, well advertised and
eagerly awaited, was also one of the earliest 'big ' licences, CRL's War Of The Worlds, Based on
HG Wells's famous novel and with a helping hand from Jeff Wayne's equally famous music,
the game proved only too well that a good idfa and loads of hype aren't set for success unless
there's also good game design and a decent program in there somewhere. Soon enough, the
established companies would be able to employ the talents of individuals and teams, but in
1984 the best of those people were struggling to make their names as independent outfits, like
Realtime.

14 The CRASH History

AN ISSUE OF EXCLUSIVES!

TAGECQACH& BLACKHAW™

■MHMHi CREATIVE SPAR KS

THE LEGEND OFAVALON

^^■■■HBmHEWSON CONSULTANTS

TIR NA NOG

iGARGOYLE GAMES

a

■rp

iKifW

Lothlorien- i

September 1984
Issue No 8

Released on
August 30th

Again we have a summery cover to suit the season, and one that isn 'f related to any
game. This is a splendid example of the Spectrum device being used in a surreal
manner to create effect. The distributer voiced a worry that readers wouldn't be
able to tell from the painting that it was a computer magazine. But one glimpse of
that P-quotes-PRINT key was like a neon sign to any rubber-keyed Spectrum
owner - and they were nil rubber keys then. In order not to distract from the picture,
the caver tines uws kept, for CRASH, to a modest minimum.

The King Street offices are situated on three floors above a Victoria Wine shop in the very
centre of Ludlow. In August, when CRASH moved in, only the top two floors were used, and
they looked empty enough when we were all installed! The first floor was occupied by a
subtenant who astonishingly enough was also in the computer business > a programmer of
educational software.

Reception, mail order, subscriptions and administration went on the second floor, run by
Franco Frey and Denise Roberts. Denise had joined Newsfieid only a month or two after
Matthew, to take over his mail order responsibilities when he was moved across to do CRASH
reviews back in December 83.

Of the four rooms on the top floor, one became an art room for layout and one a writing room
with two desks and typewriters, one held the process camera* and the other was used for
photographing screens and as a photographic darkroom. It was great luxury to have all that
breathing room, and at last a proper set up existed for receiving visits from software houses.
Our first two such were notable. Graham Stafford and Simon Brattel of Crystal Computing
came to tell the world that they were henceforth to be known as Design Design, and to give
the reviewers a preview of Dark Star, just about the fastest 3-D vector graphics game ever
written. And Gargoyle Games, in the form of Greg Follis, Ted Heatheote and Roy Carter,
nipped over from Dudley to show us a game in a revolutionary new style for which Gargoyle
was to become celebrated. It was Tir Na Ndg.

We were doing well for previews, for a day later Andrew Hewson appeared bearing gifts
m the form of Steve Turner's latest game, The Legend OfAvabn. This graphical adventure
marked a distinct change of pace and 3-D style for Steve, and even in an unfinished form it
looked very exciting. These early previews made CRASH'S manifesto of being first with new
games, new software houses and innovations a reality. The 'exdusives' war was beginning to
hot up, but we felt well satisfied with August 1

When not hard at work looking after the business end of CRASH or reviewing utilities,
Franco Frey wore his other hat as an engineer. For some months he'd been developing a
hardware programmable interface for the Spectrum, and suddenly it was ready to market.
We had tried out several prototypes in the office, and they made setting up joysticks much
easier. It was the Frel Comcon, which was to become a huge success. Our preview was a rather
easy scoop to make!

Hot games were more in the news than the reviews, although Creative Sparks's Black Hawk
was Smashed for its addictivky (certainly not its graphics, whatever the ratings said), and of
course there was the state-of-the-art sports simulation from Psion> Match Point* Derek
provided the third: Adventure International's The Hulk with its pretty graphics.

Legend provided us with hype when they announced The Great Space Race. The campaign
relied heavily on the reputation of their Valhalla> although many suggested that Legend was
busily recreating an aura of success around the earlier game greater than it reallv deserved in
order to justify claims for The Great Space Race, * A spectacular futuristic romp ... * said
our News page hopefully, but there was to be a five-month wait to find out whether or not
the hype would justify the hope.

16 The CRASH History

October 1984
Issue No. 9

Released on
September 27th

Oliver' i Ziggy cover tuas among the most popular he produced. It was really the
first CRASH cover definitely promoting a specific game, Fantasy 1 ; Backpacker's
Guide To The Universe, Here ims an opportunity to use his imagination to bring
to life objects, characters and weird aliens imwfoed in a gams that no-^me had yet
seen, alt from tvritten details offered in the prerelease description. The result is a
powerful picture which, ironically, probably informed more readers ofiohat hero
Ziggy teas like than anything Fantasy themselves put nut.

By its ninth edition, the effect CRASH was beginning to have on the software industry was,
in turn, being reapplied to its staff. Roger Kean had already been horrified a couple of months
earlier at Micromania's concern when they were informed by the most powerful software
distributor of the time thai unless a game achieved better than 65% in CRASH it wouldn't be
accepted for distribution. Now, proof sheets of CRASH reviews were being requested by
retail chains to see whether a game was worthy of shelf space-
It put pressure on the reviewing team- Matthew , Chris Passey and Robin Candy- because
software houses wanted to present unfinished games to discover what the reviewers would
like to see improved, so that the game had a chance of becoming a CRASH Smash. Some may
have considered that a visit with the personal touch would influence the team by putting it on
the spot when it came to making an impartial judgement. If so, as many were to be
disappointed by Matthew's outspoken opinions and Robin's downright stubbornness. Now
another young reviewer had appeared (and undergone the ritual photograph pushing CRASH
T-shirts on the Hotline page). He was Ben Stone, from nearby Tenbury, and he was as
daunting in his opinions as the others, despite his newcomer status.

The Ziggy cover did little to help. That kind of coverage was eagerly sought by companies
desperate to convince shops that their game was about to sell in its tens of thousands, and
since it seemed that Fantasy got a cover with apparently no trouble, Roger found himself
inundated with calls suggesting ideas that would have kept CRASH in covers until the 1990s!
As a consequence, for the remainder of the year Oliver avoided game-linked cover paintings.

One of the questing visitors was Angus Ryall of Games Workshop, but he stayed longer
than most, becoming our strategy columnist for the new Frontline. Another was Steve Wilcox
of newly-formed Elite, who brought with him the oddly-named Kokotoni Wilf. Over several
days both Matthew and Robin debated with Elite's programmers on minor improvements
before pronouncing themselves satisfied, but Steve may have been disappointed lhax Kokntmi
Wilf still missed being a Smash . ■

In fact Smashes were a bit thin - the pre-Christmas period was looming and software houses
were holding back, apart from Gremlin Graphics. They'd scored quite a coup with TV news
coverage of their 'mining' game which caricatured Arthur Scargill, then very much in the
news because of the national miners' strike. Wanted: Monty Mole was a surefire Smash,
capturing all the addict ivity of Jet Set Willy and offering loads of new puzzling problems to
solve.

Within days we achieved a cheat mode for Monty Male and began preparing the map for a
future issue. It was a typical late-afternoon situation: Ben (school over for the day) playing
the game to reach every screen one by one, Roger sitting sketchpad in hand roughing out the
screens for Oliver to fill in the detail later, Matthew in another corner alternating between
reviewing and making halftone pictures for David Western in the layout room, Robin sorting
through mail ready for me to start the Forum. The jokes about Robin taking over my desk
were no jokes'

If this paints a suspiciously cosy picture of contentment and smacks of nostalgia for its own
sake, don't be fooled - it was hard work for the small team. Within a few short months a
massive expansion was about to take place and the coming changes would sunder the simpler
comforts we then enjoy

The first indication of change was the arrival of a black Apricot xi computer. For Roger
Kean, at least, the days of typewriters, paper and Tipp-Ex were over.

18 The CRASH History

3 PT // ^ V^n

|~^

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MICRO GAMES ACTION
THE PIRACY DOSSIER

^ICBOWEGA

jasper

-MICROSPHERE

SfCQQL DAZE

AUTOMATA UK

DkllS EX MACHINA

.

No.10 NOVEMBER 1984
85£>

i

2ZM2

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B

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We test 19 popular Joysticks
to see if they stand the

Decathlon pace!!

^

November 1984
Issue No. 10

Released on
October 25th

'Sometimes cover ideas arrived without trouble, bta there mere akmyi issue* when
nothing suggested itself. Normally Oliver prefers to work <nte-and-<i-half times up
on finished sise to allow for crisper detail, bur when he's running late the repra
house would rather have ike painting same size. This cover vxu the first done at
printed size because the decision to go with the joystiek-companson ankle was
made at the last moment. In some ways it's my personal favourite -you Effui
the atmosphere with a knife -and yet it was done in three hours flat*

I can remember Roger and Oliver being rather proud of having raised as much as £4,000 in
prizes, possibly because it indicated how far CRASH had come from that first issue when
C&VG regarded us as a local fanzine with potential. Now, without a lot of effort, we had
software houses eager to participate in competitions and put up real money in value. Once
again, the DIY section was the biggest in the contents, ten competitions.

And talking of the contents page . . . another development was taking place, almost
without anyone noticing it. The page's basic shape had remained the same for a while, using
rainbow colours when we had time to put them in. Originally this complicated procedure was
undertaken by our repro house in London, but after CRASH moved into its new offices, a
film-processing machine was purchased to shoot finished artwork to negatives for the printer,
thus cutting overhead costs considerably. Matthew and Roger, who looked after the technical
end of layout as well as writing reviews and articles, began to experiment with preparing
colour for the printer. For several months to come 3 they were to do the contents page
in-house, which explains why it was more or less ambitious, depending on how much time
they had.

From this small beginning Newsfieid began to do more film planning, adding colour to
many pages that otherwise would have been monochrome. Today the process requires an
entire department of its own, managed by Matthew Uffindell.

The big feature was a comparison of joysticks, which was pretty exhaustive - and
exhausting. The team were thrashing the damned things for weeks, using Ocean's Daley
Thompson's Decathlon as the wrecking game. And that came on top of several tiring days at
The PClTShow, held at Olympia . CRASH didn't have a stand because of the cost, but Roger,
Oliver and Matthew waded round talking to as many exhibitors as they could. Wearing
specially-made CRASH badges, they were frequently stopped bv visitors who wanted to meet
anyone from the magazine.

As usual the show prompted massive releases of games and there were seven Smashes.
Pyjamarama was the second Wally Week game from Mikro-Gen, a massive leap forward with
its arcade and adventure combination. Delta Wing (Creative Sparks) was a sort of forerunner
of Mercenary. There was Hewson's Legend OfAvakm, the complex helicopter simulation from
DureJl called Combat Lynx, and two games from our own Derek Brewster, the arcade Jasper
and the enduring adventure Kentilia. Jasper just made it bv a spot, but the tragedy is that
although Derek had it ready before Jet Set Willy, contractual complications delayed its
release; had it been released then, it would have been a real eye-opener, but advances in
software were being made fast and it was almost out of date.

There was one other Smash, Booty '» our first budget hit from newly-created Firebird.

This was our first issue composed on a computer. Learning to use a word processor and
then all the complications involved with getting the typesetting back for layout meant it was
quite fraught at times, and for most things I still preferred my typewriter. However, the
length of POKE routines was increasing, and dealing with them was never my strongest
point, so I was secretly pleased to discover Robin Candy entering them happily for me on the
Apricot when Roger wasn't around. It was the thin end of the wedge of course - discontented
with providing review comments and sorting mail, Robin wanted to get do 'same serious*
writing, and for me, the writing was on the wall as far as Playing Tips was concerned.

20 The CRASH History

I

No.11 DECEMBER 1984

MICRO GAMES

Crash S

STARSTRIKE nuTm*

TURMOIL BUG-BYTE

Sin LA JvGCLC/ i MELBOURNE HOUSE

OUTOF THE SHADOWS*™

DARK STAn DESIGN- DESJGN
TWNANOG GARGOYLE
SKOOL DAiZTf MICROSPHERE

(

December 1984
Issue No. 11

Released on
November 15th

There were moments what people glibly teamed Oliver Frey hashed Spectrum
otomg to the number he destroyed in CRASH cover illustrations, but the opposite
was the truth. As he remarked token ZZAP! came along, the old Spectrum bw
one of the friendliest objects which simply lent itself to painting, unlike the brown
Commodore 64 which merely resembled 3 piece of fudge. Here's another cover
unrelated to any game t excepting perhaps Mizar' s Out Of The Shadows, and one
thai v/ss actually a reworking of an old mail order catalogue cover, featuring
a hero bursting forth from a TV screen.

The promise Realtime had shown in 3-D Tank Duel was well and truly realised in their second
release, Stantrihe, which recreated all the thrills of the popular coin-op Star Wars. It was in a
bit of a race with Design Design's Dark Star, a similar game in principle. But both Smashes
showed how a closely related concept can be very differently implemented . In their own ways
they were state-of-the-art software.

Equally excellent and very different from either 'Star' game and from each other were the
Smashes Tir Na Nog and Skoal Daze. Gargoyle Games gave us Cuchulamn, Sidhe and Greg
Follis's Grego-Celtic mythology, giant animated characters, mental 3-D and a game hard to
distinguish between pure adventure and arcade/explorer. Microsphere's characters were
smaller, but beautifully animated against authentic school backgrounds, providing another
sort of adventure game but with properly crude schoolboy humour as its theme. These two
were also state-of-the-art. Bug-Byte's Turmoil and Melbourne's Sir Lancelot were not, but
were still highly playable and addictive games of sufficient quality to make them stand out
from the rest of the crowd .

Deep down in the Adventure Trail (or rather up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne where he lives ;
Derek was telling everyone who had packed away their Spectrums to get them out and fill the
boxes with straw and tortoises, for * when it comes to Spectrum software, you've never had it
so good. He was excited by Level 9's Return To Bden, Bug-Byte's Twin Kingdom Valley,
Games Workshop's Tower Of Despair and the ebulliently, wickedly funny Valkyrie 17 from
the anarchic Ram Jam Corporation (through Palace Software).

To cap it off Out Of The Shadows from unknown Mizar was a Smash, and thereby hangs a
tale - and a CRASH failure. If anyone at CRASH felt unhappy about the reliance distributors
and retailers were putting on CRASH reviews for stocking, then they were probably equally
happy at being able to employ this unasked for power on the behalf of new or very small
software houses . Some were finding it harder to get a look in with the increasingly professional
and hard-nosed market place. Our record in their favour had been encouraging. But with
Mizar, we drew a blank. No distributor would accept the game, having failed to spot its
marketability, despite its CRASH Smash status. It was galling. And it showed more clearly
than ever that the world was changing with blinding speed. At the beginning of 1984, an
advertisement helped sales, by the end of the year even a full-scale marketing campaign was
capable of failing to attract the distributors' attention. For the small independent software
house, it looked like the beginning of the end.

Up until this time much of CRASH editorial was written without travelling the country
visiting software houses, most being done over the phone. More recently we had been happy
to see how many people would actually trek up to Ludlow to visit us, a mark indeed of
acceptance. But two pleasant occasions forced first Roger and Oliver to visit London, and
then Matthew and Roger, The first was a trip to see a preview of the film The Last Starfighter
(about which Roger wrote an article on its use of computer graphics), and the second was to
see a preview of Ghouhusters, set to be the first real big film tie-in. But for the game from
conquering American company Activision we had to wait . . .

> %!

22 The CRASH History

Jto.J2 1984/85

£1.25

\

r-r-^

2^ ^

OVER
£7000 IN PRIZES!

om: BUG-BYTE CCS CREATIVE SPARKS FIREBIRD FREL GILSOFT
/SO N INCENTIVE OCEAN REALTIME SILVERS OFT ULTIM ATE

Underwurkte + Knight Lore
BouMerDash Pole Position

Runes ofZendos

P-REVISW-

ELITE'S follow up to THE FALL GUY and DUKES OF HAZZAF

mm

STOOOWHftlZES]

Christmas 1984
Issue No. 12

Released on
December 13th

WW, what do you do for a Christmassy cover illustration? h isn't a time for tout

Jspnved names of a d^tant plana He employed a uchmqJuMck hfusZ
TTr? y ' i bal ****«*" ike background colours aver %My 2£fo£
t^pxkmgthm tut gmtly in colours tohith frW walk thXckgrmnd^

Ill^^f S *f**™* WW to be a nightmare, everyone knew it. Only two-and-a-half

rto^Wauteis^ "*? v° see . in *t issue> ^ «E5yss

L-shanS rf^t J^Tu ,£ ^P^ 8 ' and thcr «5 a photograph of himself sitting a t an
Lt ^ ** w,th "«*"• ostensibly reviewing a game. How empty and tidy tie Ice
looks compared to now! ITus move further delayed the writing however * P

doubting tbetr quality, and they were s£U Tte taSrf rte two fit ^ m
tmuate an enure genre the isometric perspective 3-D exploring "' *"**' ^ was M
«££ S k 7* fOT7 ^ *«"" °'*"*» &om D ° r ^ (^ y Doric) It was their
market it deserved. A different tune entirely for #0i*&fer DasA and it* h*™ D-WnJ u
would soon be adopted as a mascot by NewsfiekPs second dtle Z7AP* £ inf ' ^

too, became after good starting sales, it slumped, eventually tatog Fawasv vrith t

£etLn? mnJT^ ^ ■"" ^ ™) ^though I recal I it having ^me good £fo?
lerhaps more effort went mto setting up the licence deal than into th, h-L J

TZl!T g T y. tW " f , ? s m a blg way > and *« issue a^ carried a preview of thS next
intended game, Amwif, and mentioned its follow up Dukes o/hZIZa UH u

"gS» f C *f H a big favour, butmore of thafm^ ***

tfcee pages of POKEs specially compiled for Christmas. Ii was to be my last momh ™ Z
Tips for many a moon, Robin would take over in the New Year

As my first job for Issue One had been to write the Look Rack it ^^™4 ™i„ «,♦■ i_
>™*so my last task ^^^^

24 The CRASH History

The CRASH History continues n«t moat* with Issues 13 u, 24

\

flO"

T)» eight planots ol the Hyf urian System aire under attack by
nous, swarming, hordes of odious Star Thugs. There is but

one hope, 5TARFQX. The most advanced fighting machine ever built,
atfijy, so long rs it since war raged within the System that att

tta old figiter pi tats are either senile, bedridden, or dead! What is

Meded is someone young, brave, and with a lust for action. In short,

MMOMtiksVOOl!!

Features you must be told about!

• 23 DIFFERENT WEAPONS

• 30 HOLOCUBE MAP OF STAR SYSTEM

• 1 MILLION CO-ORDIHATE LOCATIONS

• DIFFICULT TASKS AND
NINE PLANETS TO FIND

C84/129 cast £9.99 C64128

disk £12.99 AMSTRAOcass

£9.99 AMSTRADdis*

£14.99 SPECTBtlM£8.99

•* £5 OFF iBk

PRICES

YOUR MICRO
DESERVES THE BEST. .

When your home or business micro costs several hundreds of
pounds, it deserves the finest repair facilities in Europe (well,
probably!), And the finest prices - £5 off trade rates for a limited
period only. * How? At Verran we use our own range .of advanced
automatic test equipment (now sold worldwide), backed by
stringent 2-8 hours soak-rack testing. That means speed, ultra-low
prices and, most important, guaranteed reliability. For the first
three months we'll repair any fault free. For the next three, at half
these quoted prices. * It's the finest service available.

* Currently we handle over 3500 products on average every day.
Providing services for such leading companies as Amstrad pic.
Commodore Business Machines, Sinclair Research, Rank Xerox,
Dixons, Currys r Boots, W H Smiths, John Menzies and many more.

* Join them and take up our special offer now.

Recommended and Approved by

AMSTRAD ATARI COMMODORE

ACORN SINCLAIR

EUROPE'S LEADING

COMPUTER REPAIR CENTRE

f&

...AND UNBEATABLE DISCOUNTS ON ALL COMPONENTS!!!

"* Wrttr over £500,000 worth of spares in stock, we
can meet many of your specialised requirements.
We've listed a few examples and for anything not
displayed just call us and we'll quote immediately
inclusive of first class post

SPECTRUM SPAMS

m CPU
ULA6C0O1

Power Supply
ROM

4116 RAMS
ZTX690

ZTX 213

r erran

2.50

7.00

5.50

7,00

75

.40

.40

Keyboard Membrane

Spectrum
Spectrum Plus
' Templates

COMMODORE SPARES

65IQ Processor

CIA
6581 S>d Chip

901225 Graphs ROM

901226 Basic ROM

:
9061 14 House Keeper
6569 -VIC
4164 RAMS- Memory

3.00
800
3.00

1200
12.00
15.00

lG.C-D
1000
! 5 90
1000
18.00
1.00

Power SuppBes

C64

C16

19.50

15.00

All the above prices include VAT but pfease enclose
a further £L50 post and packing on alt component
orders.

HOW TO CONTACT US
■^r For quotes on computers not listed or on.
any component, telephone 0276 66266,
{Quoting CRS/107).

if To send us your micro for repair, mail it securely
packed, accompanied by cheque, postal order
(made out to Verran Micro Maintenance Limited) w
quote your Access or Barrfaycard number. And to
obtain your special discount quote CRS/107,

Verran Micro-Maintenance Limited, Unit2H &2J. Albany Park, Frimley
Road, Camberley, Surrey GU15 2PL Telephone 0276 66266.

1 1

OPPORTUNITIES

In-House and Free-Lance Technical staff

Having established tne key elements of a well organised and equipped in-house"
software development team, the company has the following opportunities to
offer in Entertainment software Development.
Senior Programmers - OT.E. £25K

Having been responsible for at least one technically excellent (tftough not necessarily commercially successful)
entertai nrnent software product you win be experienced in 280. 6502 and/or 58000 assembler you will be looking
for an opportunity to join an in- bouse' environment committed to the development of original products and
conversions of the very highest quality and will expect to can on graphics, music and other support functions
of tne Highest eafidre.

Programmers- T.E. £15K

Though not necessarily able to show direct involvement in any commercially available entertainment
software products, you win be able to demonstrate tn-rough specific routines and bemo programs, a
high degree of technical atrnuv in zoo 6502 or 68000 assembler Vou will be toofclng for an
opportunity to realise your ambition to be responsible for the development of technically
excellent entertainment software products and will expect to call on graphics, music and other
support functions of tne highest calibre.

Graphic Artists Musicians' Game Designer- O.T,E, £10-£15K

With or without formal qualifications you will already be working in a free- lance or in-

house capacity supporting programmers in your specialist aiscipfine in me

development of commercially available/to be published entertainment

software products you will be able todemonstratea number of different

examples of your work and will be iooic ing to put your experience to use

whilst developing It further in the production of commercially available

products.

Alt appointees to me above positions mil be offered an attractive worlclna

environment, substantial &a$icsa4arv ana an opponumrv to develop tneir amoittcn;
with tne full support of tne comoanv's management ana financial strength
in adfWtlon to th* atjoue opportunities Hie company lias 3 regular flow or program
conversion contracts available at attractive rates to freelancers and is particularly
Keen to support proven programmers ana deveMJornent nouses wishing ta write and
have puPHsned by a major Orand name original games for all popular machines,
if vou would me to arrange am interview to cuscuss any of the anew opportunities
Dlease write giving full details of your relevant experience to

Steve wi icox - Director

Elite Systems Ltd, Anchor House, Anchor Road. Aldrtdge. Walsall WS9 spw

■ NOW AVAILABLE -the official Spectrum upgrade!

■Turn your Spectrum into
la Spectrum + for just £24.95

Professional fun • sue fceyncara
- includes 1 7 extra keys
Responsive typewriter- style action
Accepts all current Spectrum
softwareand penpnerai*

+ £1.50 p +

Cj$s shift

\n**wi tomnn Cuisw conwots

Here's some exciting news for spectrum owners ...

We official Spectrum upgrade Kit The Upgrade has everything you

need to turn your spectrum into the scyftsh new Spectrum +. vou don I even

need an understanding of electronics, just me anility to solder a few wires together! me

leaflet in rne kr gives ciear . step dv step instructions, if you're not sureaoout ooi n g i r

yourself, don't worry Simply return your a8K Spectrum to us and for C3UD + £i SO

p + p we'll upgrade n fft

The bigger, oetter spectrum keyboard

The spectrum ♦- measures 17W x fi- it Has a large typewriter-style Keyboard,

with hard, moulded keys you'll Nrid the new Keyboard has a smooth, positive

action - «deai for Touch-typing, word processing, simulation programs and

extended programm mg sessions. Two retractable legs give a perfect typing position.

There ire 5B keys In an including 17 new keys Programmers will be pleased

to see dedicated punctuation keys, a space bar. and separate shift keys for graphics

and extended modes Arid a reset Burton allows you to clear a program from your

computer s memory without disconnecting the power supply

The official Spectrum Upgrade. Naturally your upgraded |
computer will accept all the peripherals in your Sinclair system
interface 1, Microdrives and so on - as wen as alt spectrum software !
Just as important, new Spectrum software and peripherals win be designed
with cne spectrum + in mind. So the Sinclair upgrade adds stylish looks, new j
capabilities. ,., and new potential for the future

HOW TO ORDER BY MAIL

1 fP¥CKjreQuireustodottieupgradeforyoupieasesendCH.90^£T.50p + p. Tbtai£33.«0. j
2. Should you require the do-it-yourself Kit just send £34.9*+ £i.50p + p. Total £26.49.
s. if you requirevourspecrrumtobe repaired and upgraded to a spectrum Pl us we ha v e a
special offer price of just €50,00 complete
orders can be placed by using your Access Card on the numbers below

rua irt i laic

Upgrade Deix 140 High street West Gtossoc Derbyshire 5K13-8H J
Tel (0457.4) 66555,' 67761 & Manchester 061-236 0376
ispyngrit Videovault ltd No 682121

CRASH October 1987 89

Ref; Crash 10'87

PLENTY OF NETTIN'

PAUL EVANS plugs
into Micronet with a
new CRASH column

RAtN, RAiN, RAIN. I'm sure
Know the tee ting: it's pouring down
and there's no chance of going
out. The Adventures OiA Lesser
Spotted Aifgarn&n Butiermc I
on the telly.

It's attimes like this you think 'a?
• jpeccy to play
megadestructran on! ' - but 1 1
not as good as someone to phal

■

It's at times like this /think 'at
least I've got my moat 11

A modem is a gadget that
connects your computer to

:ta!k
to the computer at theotherer
you have a modem you can talk to
any computer, however large, if
you're using a standard method.

You can access large
computers which hold thousands
of pages of information, news.

reviews, anything; I'm going to

concentrate on just one of these
massive networks. Prestel.

LOGGING ON

One of the cheapest and best-
supported modems is available for
theSpectrum-the VTX 5000. You
k one up for about £35- £40.

a on
> i aide the VTX, and it pages

u turn the
..iter on. (Beware - the VTX
rsn't compatible with the black 128
or the +3, though there are v
around this problem, revealed this
month.)

If you get the welcome sons
you're ready to log on to Prestel -
that is, if you ' ve got a password. A
subscription to Prestel and
Micronet, the computing area,
around £60 a year. It's

you get a free \

MORE PAGES THAN
CRASH!

Through Prestel you can book
tickets instantly, seethe latest
prices within seconds of change,
check timetables and so on. And K
co vers every subject you can think
of.

Prestel (or Pretzel, as some
s call it) is a database
containing about ha If a m 1 1 Hi
pages of information. A Prestel
page is the same as a page on
Ceef ax or Oracle and that s what s
■displayed on your screen.
However, Prestet is a lot faster
than the other networf

The network is made up of IPs

(information Providers) who create

own pages and allow the

I em. IPs on

Prestel range from British Airways

to the stock market.

Micronet is one of the IPs on
tel. It serves the
microcomputing public - yo
me - with microbases" for most
home computers, a large range of
lelesoftware from major software

houses, games with cash prizes,
PBM s, a gallery for people wanting

n Micronet,
several helplines, news, reviews,
tips, ehatlines where you can have
actual conversations with real
people across the country, the
adventures Shades and MUD, and
lots more.

The Spec trum is one of the best-
supported computers on
Micronet. There are four mam
■ '"istortheSpeccy.and n
small ones run on the gallery.

SPECTRUM
SPECIALS

The Spectrum Micronet b-

MICRONET <c>

called Spectrum, has a a massive
database containing tip
e, a helpline
hardware, books and software,
features and three weekly letters
updates. The letters are the most
popular thing on Mien x
anything can be answered within a
week!

The Micronet Contributors run
clubs on Micronet, and two
Spectrum areas are run in their
database. The first is Spec-tacular
(not to be confused with the
fanzine). ft*s similar to Specr
but has different sections like an
k arfsnow" and routes to gallery

The Spectrum User To lh°
- jp (SUTUG) is a lis! of

mi i users on Micronet and
; laiibox numbers, so you can
messages to them, ri □
covers people who' ve asked to be

And Specs, which opened

ind
well-designed, with many areas
sections have missed out
such as ads and fanzine reviews.
In CRASH I'll be taking a eta
i the Spectrum areas a
;des, the PBM game Stamet
and many other aspects of P i

•••mailbox number

is 21 9995412. and I'll send replies
tend.

► Mieronet: an alternative to

megadestruction

8003001a

spectrum

MICROBASE

I MICROBASE

UHAT'S NEW

1 Microfair Ticket Dinners - 7th Aug

2 It's quicker by Tube

8th Aug

3 CET Up loader: tape version 9th Aug

4 Sunday post bag

- 9th Auq

5 Panasonic KP1081 printer lOth Aug

6 Troubleshooter -

7 AMX Art bug i i x

11th Aug
12th Aug

brings

MAIN- INDEX

Micro Chat

FAX FOR THE
MEMORY

VtEWFAX, one of the Prestel IPs,

recently closea down. But some of

- ■■

setfiey haverrt been erased
25825S#
ave a
modem, I'll ravea! its contents next
time!)

TELEGAMES

MANY major software companies
are selling their gamp s
telesoftwareon Mferonel: Bite has
just joined Hewson and Firebird on
me network.

'.software coats less
than you'd pay in the shops, and
you don 't have to trudge out to buy
it. Hewson is already selling
Zynaps at a low price, and Elite
offers Paperboy and Space Harrier
for just under £7 each.

FIREFLY
BURNS OUT

F//?EF£V has been withdrawn. It

was a way of creating a mlni-
Prestet (known as a bulletin hoard |
or BB) on your Spectrum with a
Beta disk system and a Voyag
modem.

Firefly was a good piece of
software, but it was ridden with
bugs and wasn't being updated.
This looks like the end of standard
BBs on the Spectrum - only
Micron is left, and you need
special software ta access a
Micron BB.

SoH -Tech

FALLING OFF

A LOG-ON

SCREEN

I THE recently-updated Prestellog-
oartog-off screen is SO DULL!

And the new computer tones are
I causing trouble. You can now log
I onto this with a modem running at
I a different speed from the VTX.
I That's OK, but now my modem
I crashes every time I log off.
If anyone has had similar
trouble, please contact my
I mailbox

128 SOLUTIONS

THERE ARE TRICKS to make the
8 work with the

■dem.
Just fit a + 2 ROM I n place of the
M (the +2 works fine with
<). CPC supplies these
for around £8: rinn (0772}

Or you cert buy the £22 Spectre
pes In place
of the original VTX' ROM I

i S new comms software
which knocks ihe VTX & "**
six. Bui be warned: fittii
.

THE LABOURS
OF HERCULES

PRODUCER: Terry Taylor
PRICE: £1.99

his Quilled adventure
^offers much more than
[la cursory glance might
suggest. The theme
chosen is one I much
enjoy — ancient Greece - which 1
think suits the medium of
adventure very well (though
some unfortunates may well
recall curiously inappropriate
Latin lessons which have
irrevocably tarnished these
wondrous Greek stories).

Another plus for reviewers like
myself is the superb information
pack received with the game - a
lesson for all budding software
producers, who sometimes
overlook the importance of clear
instructions and information in
developing product identity.

Your Herculean task in this one
is to guide Hercules through a
series of tasks (12 in all) asked of
him by Eurystheus to assuage the
strong man's guilt over cutting up
his own family, Hercufcs's

behaviour which is, of course,
completely out of character, is
explained away by his good
friend, Theseus, who reminds
him of Hera's curse upon him. By
going to the oracle our hero finds
his way of gaining grace: he takes
on the 12 tasks which by and
large must be completed in the
order set by Eurystheus,

Your journey will throw you
into the fascinating world of
Greek mythology. You will
encounter the fearsome Hydra,
the Minotaur, Cerberus the
terrible guardian of the
underworld, and other

characters from the realms of
legend. Explore ancient Greece,
cross wide plains, negotiate
dangerous mountains and
treacherous swamps, and sail the
vast ocean to distant lands and
islands . . . sounds like a holiday
brochure from the days before
Club 18-30.

Though it's a Quilled text-only
affair, The Labours Of Hercules k
a very engaging piece of
software, and it has chosen some

► The mythology of ancient Greece and the technology of today make for an
evocative challenge in The Labours Of Hercules, (It's text-only; this is the load-
ing screen.)

92 CRASH October 1987

superb legends from whiih to
create its problems. The location
descriptions are often quite
evocative, as in the case of the
Royal Throne Room: 'This room
surpasses anything that Hercules
has ever seen. The walls are
adorned with magnificent
frescoes depicting all manner of
exotic flowers, birds and animals.
The floor is a huge mosaic, and
tells of the battle of the Titans. At
the head of the room is a huge
marble throne, and seated on
that throne is the regal figure of
Eurystheus,'' It is from this
location that the tasks are meted
out.

The EXAMINE reports are
contrastingly short, but the
important thing is that fust about
everything can be examined,
whether central to the plot or
not.

A good theme with good
problems — what more does an
adventure need? The Labours Of
Hercules is available by mail
order only from Terry Taylor at
20 Lee Road, Bacup, Lancashire
OL 13 OBA.

DIFFICULTY: made easier by
referring to the Greek myths
GRAPHICS: none
PRESENTATION: redesigned
character set

INPUT FACILITY: verb/noun
RESPONSE: fast Quill
GENERAL RATING: interesting
theme and plot

Atmosphere

74%

Vocabulary

73%

Logic

71%

Addictive quality

75%

Overall

73%

THE GUEST

PRODUCER: Stephen

Wadsworth

[ he John Peel slot here —
! no-one has quite picked
up on this game as yet,
! so presumably many
software houses

who've received it might well
look here to see what i thought of
it. The Guest fe a very competent
game and this is in no small way
due to its very safe background —
ie The Quill, Illustrator and Patch:
most of the game was in fact
written before their successor,
PAW, became available.
However, there is a niggle even if
its source is fully explained by the
author himself: due to the use of
airbrush and inverse airbrush
effects, which give the pictures
above the text more texture, the
graphics appear slowly and this
proves irritating when trying to
move the pace on a little over
familiar ground. Apart from this
qualification, much is as you'd
expect - the coherent plot and

setting taking their inspiration
from the ghoul-ridden and
vampire-infested works of Bram
Stoker and Stephen King.

The adventure seems very long
and is set over two parts, the
second being the more difficult.
At the start of Part Two you type
in a set of codes which must
correspond to some useful items
from Part One. Because I fluffed
one of the entries, I had to make
do without my fragment, an
important item from the first
episode.

i The notes accompanying my
review game were truly
marvellous and included maps
and some rather interesting plans
of River point Castle overlooking
the Fief Of Riverpoint.

These lands are owned by the
Bistrize family, headed by a
Count and Countess. The Count
has fallen ill with an inexplicable
malady and the Countess turns to
you, The Guest, her personal
champion and servant fighter, to
sort things out.

► r$ a case of Quitted until undead as yew search for the Nosteratu, hidden \n
the shadowy world ol The Guest

Things are pretty bad when
you arrive. The villagers have
shut themselves in the village hall
to avoid their brethren who have
joined the undead roaming the
area: al the start of the
adventure, their strength is
almost exhausted and their
morale low as no-one has seen
the Priest Canen for three days.
No doubt you, the hero, can turn
things around with a nice pot of
strong lea.

The other character in this
adventure is Kara, the Wise
Woman or Grey Sorceress -
'grey' because her magic is not
fully white and not potent
enough to vanquish the
Nosferatu, the magical demon
behind all the Queer goings-on.

Hara is a useful first stop on
your investigative trail: it is she
who puts forward the theory that
the Nosferatu is behind the
count's sudden fall from good
health and his journey into the
twilight world of the undead.

To complete the adventure
your thankless task is to rid the
village of all these ghostly undead
beings floating around, penetrate
the castle's defences, destroy (be
Nosferatu, and round off the lot
with a mystery bonus mission.

Playing the game you
immediately become aware of
the slow graphics, but the
redesigned character set is
atmospheric, if a little difficult to
read, Particularly difficult are the
runes that represent your input:
these are so hard to decipher that
you are never quite sure if you
have made a typing error.

The location descriptions

aren't the most interesting I've
ever read and where they do tend
to wax lyrical you'll normally find
them repeated often, along with
the tines 'you can hear the birds
singing' or 'the east sky is lit with
the orange dawn I igh t of the sun' .
You're often told about the
position and quality of the light,
which I suppose adds some
flavour to the game.

The Guest- is rather a good
Quilled game, it has very little in
the way of earthshatteringJy
original features but, as with all
games written on utilities, it
shows a certain competence. The
slow pictures are the exception:
only one seems to have
war ra nled all the effort ex pended
in the airbrush technique which
is responsible for the delays. In
conclusion: a good theme and
good payability, but the

J urogram ming is perhaps just a
ittle boring.

DIFFICULTY: Part One

reasonably easy, Part Two much

tougher

GRAPHICS: stipple effect,

average

PRESENTATION; decidedly

average

INPUT FACILITY: verb/noun

RESPONSE: Quilt, but graphics

slow

GENERAL RATING: competent,

but perhaps a trifle dull

Atmosphere

65%

Vocabulary

67%

Logic

69%

Addictive qualities

68%

Overall

67%

DARGONSCRYPT

PRODUCER: Venom
Games
PRICE: £1,00

AUTHOR: Mark Lane

( arth is in near-total
i darkness. The reason?
Repsilak, Prince of the
Shadowdwarves and
lord of all

Shroudworlde, has invaded the
upper lands from his domain
deep beneath the ground. His
objective is to claim the upper
lands as pari of his kingdom, for
then he would be the supreme
leader of all Dargonscrypf, a
large separate continent.

With the arrival of Repsilak and
his power of black magic, all
goodness starts to fade from the
land. Now the final object in the
whole of the continent is starting
to succumb to the prince's black
magic: the sun, the very source
of light and life itself. When the
sun finally does become
exhausted it will go out forever;
the land will be in total darkness
and Repsilak will be triumphant.
However, there is an
alternative: if the elixir of light
and power can be concocted
then the sun will absorb the
magic given off by the potion and
regain its strength. Repsilak will
be defeated. Can you discover
me secret of the elixir! If so, then
you will be able to rid the land of
Repsilak and peace will return
once more.

So goes the blurb with this one,
and I can't really make up my
mind whether it's just soft in the
head or rather clever. The game
itself does appear just a bit soft:
two-thirds of the screen area is
devoted to the title and the name
of the software house is
permanently displayed with a
simple and very smalf picture
over on the far right. Needless to
say, none of the pictures would
win any awards, though at least
they're drawn quickly! The text is
unrefined Spectrum lower case,
while the scrolling text at the
bottom moves in such a manner
as to leave the end of the last
location description topping the
new one.

But despite the presentation,
the game as an adventure plays

rather well - the layout is well-
balanced and easily mapped.
Items are carefully scattered
about, usually one to every other
location or so, and after about 20
locations, associations, whether
justified or not, begin to form.

The objects of the first area
(bounded by a pile of rubble, a
deathly door and a waterfall)
include a parrot cage, a trowel, a
quill, a silver stick covered in
small thorns, a crucifix (doesn't
every adventure have one of
these?}, chalk, a plant, and a
water canteen. Put these last two
together and you see the plant
suddenly put on some growth
and produce a seed. You
immediately ask yourself if this
could be linked to the trowel . , .

How you find the water
canteen is a little strange - on
your first visit to the sand caverns
you suspect nothing but, when
you pass by again, without any
prompting whatsoever up comes
'You dig in the soft sand. You can
also see a canteen of water,'!

The happenings at the deathly
door aren't too convincing
either; the parrot squawks
'Snakivor! Snakivor' only when
if s too late and you've passed the
snake to your death at the door:
but much more curious than this
is the fact that you left the parrot
behind in its cage in the small
cave, way back on the OTHER
side of the map. Perhaps these
two disparate locations

somehow connect up.

Stilt, Dargonm:rypS is not bad at
all for the small sum asked. It's
available from Venom, 1J
Hampden Close, Bicester,
Oxfordshire OX6 7UC,

DIFFICULTY: easy to get your

teeth into

GRAPHICS: very small, and

simple

PRESENTATION: average

INPUT FACILITY: verb/noun

RESPONSE: fast

GENERAL RATING: good value

Atmosphere 70%

Vocabulary 69%

Logic 69%

Addictive qualities 70%

Overall 69%

!

Veto on jg-

c * m

the only regular "flock" are
the crows. you can also see a
cruet fix

What will you do-? &
You arc next to a laree pi le

loc Ud .

There was a super
mail bag for this month,
with some good,
detailed questions I can
get my teeth into. Let's
kick off with a recent
release, Legend Of
Apache Gold.

LEGEND OF APACHE COL D

ANDREW JONES of Leicester is
left hopping mad like some Indian
round a cam pf ire by the
following puzzles:

1 How do you get i nto the mi ne ?
I get stopped by the dancing
Indian who comes out of the
skull,

2 How do you avoid getting your
feel burnt in the desert? It says
you need something on your
feet. If so, what?

3 What has* the eagle got to do
with it?

4 What part do the canoe and
crocodile play?

1 To enter the mine INSERT
JEWEL

2 GIVE FERN to Indian trader
and wear the shoes he gives
you to cross the burning sands

.? T(t prevent the eagle eating the
corn, GI VE /A R (hand by
EXAM DOC at wagon)

4 To scare away the crocodile
SHOW HANDBAG. Paddle
the canoe with the branch.

fApache flips courtesy of GEOFF

BLAKEY)

NEVER ENDING STORY

'Help! I'm stuck on NFS. I have
been to the Southern Oracles
cave and flown to Spook City on
Falkor. I've seen the paintings on
the wafl and in my possession I
have a cape, a small piece of
leather, a fragment of glass and a
gilt-covered horn. How do I get
to new locations from inside the
city? Is it something to do with

94 CRASH October 1987

the wolf, as seen on one of the
paintings?' waits ANTHONY
PHILLIPS of West Glamorgan.
TRY: GET ROPE front the area of
the ruins and orchard, go in SW
and NW directions and remove
the planks to reveal staircase
down. Tie the rope to the hook.
(Thanks to G BARR.)

SCOTT BURNS wonders of the
same game if the Luckdragon can
fly, and how to make it fly, and
what the crystal and the piece of
broken glass are for. Take Falkor
when in possession ofAuryn and
he will stay with you. Say Ft Y
SOUTH if you wish to go south-
Drop the crystal in the room with
the strange machine and you wilt
be told how to pass the sphinxes.
(Thanks to regular JOHN
WILSON.)

LORD OF THE RINGS

JACO CEBULA of Fife writes: %
like Ryan Smith in July's CRASH,
have managed to complete
Melbourne House's game by
starting on the second part of the
adventure. I would very much
like to complete the first part but
my problem lies in crossing the
Brandy wine by ferry. Once Sam
has turned the handle and the
ferry is across 1 find it hard to
cross because I simply do not
know the correct command.
Also, I cannot find a way through
the old forest and end up getting
lost or dying of starvation. 1
would be incredibly grateful if
you could help me solve these
problems.

* PS If you are wandering how I
got to the old forest without being
able to cross the river it is because
I cheated and left the ring at Bag
End and went over the bridge to
Merry's house,'

At the landing stage the handle
has to be turned five times: once
by yourself and twice by each of
vour companions (DEREK
JENKINS). Go E from the dark
tunnel to a mossy glace in the old
forest. Go Etna wide glade and E
again to a grassy place. Go SE to
a bare hilltop then Sfoa bank on
the Brandywine Rtver. (AYMAN
HAKEIN)

DAVID PR I DOLE of Cardiff
has a problem in Game One. He
wishes to know what he can do
about the green knight and the
red lady. Attack the knight till he
disappears (eating foodbelween
attacks to keep your energy up).

At the tower kill the woman,
ignoring her promises. (DES
DAVIES)

THE HELM

'I've been stumped by Firebird's
adventure The Helm, What is the
purpose of the mirror, the bulb,
and the spectacles?' wonders
RICHARD ORAGE of
Manchester. Where the
keyboard lies in the centre of a
room use the mirror to deflect the
light'beam. Get the octopus while
carrying the bulb and use the
spectacles to burn the haystack
to reveal a needle,

DUNCAN LEWIS of
Derbyshire would like to know
how to open the castle doors,
what purpose the griffin serves
and where the salt is. Castle
doors: if you hold the needle pick
lock. Open the doors and go S,
fJrop the griffin and it will break
the box open and reveal a
diamond. Use the hollow reed to
get through the spring to Dead
End and the rocksall,

SEABASE DELTA
DUNCAN LEWIS also has a
couple of problems with another
Firebird game,

1 How do you mend lift No 2?

2 Where is the ink for the pen?
/ Open the panel with the key

which was found in the food
farm. Examine the telescope
and you will see the small
metal disk used to pla y a
computer game. Drop the
washing line with (he
loudspeaker magnet attached
to retrieve the disk.
2 Fill the fountain pen with ink
from the injured octopus
(MATTHEW TUCK)

IJROFMAGIC
ALASTAIR CUSHION of
Cornwall asks: 'Can you please
tell me how to get off the pirate
ship in Part Four of Delta 4's
Colour Of Magicl I have the
bucket and the three bottles of
rum, but how do I get past the

f«rate who guards the
ifeboat?'

Gef all the bottles of rum.
Then, starting at the drunk
sailor, leave one bottle per
location leading to the edge of
the ship. GET BUCKET. The
sailor should fall overboard.
Climb into the boat and keep
bailing It out. (MA TTHEW
HOB&S)

LORDS OF TIME
'How do you clear the stream
and what do you do with the
lonely narcissus (Zone 1 }? '
asks MR MAC of Antrim,
Stream: tie plank with rope,
drop plank across stream.
Narcissus: EXAM
NARCISSUS, give looking glass
to narcissus. (A SNAPE)

MAFIA CONTRACTS I & II
'I am stuck at 85% in Mafia
Contract If. Could you please

tell me what to do once you
have killed Rossi on the
penthouse floor of his offices?'
asks DANIEL WARD of
Coventry.

S f S, press ground, S, W,
either walk or wait for 'walk'
at crossing, W, S, W, W, open
door, W, W, N, open door, up,
open door, fire. Later get card,
enter code and get folder.

JAMIE CORK of
Buckinghamshire poses the
following queries:

1 Where is Vincetti's office?

2 Where is the gun?

3 Is there any way of avoiding
'suddenly you hear a screech
Of tyres and a black Cadillac
putts up - three men jump out
and blow you to bits'?

/ Insert the coin. Take the ticket
from the machine and get into
the train. Get off at Chinatown
and say 'go up steps'. Now you
can see a very big warehouse —
Vincetti's office. (RON AN O
C AOL LAI)

2 Go to the shop opposite the
hotel and say 'Lou Ferrelo'.
Show him the passport. Say
'yes ' when asked if you expect
a bulletproof vest. The gun is
here as well. (ALAN
WILLIAMS)

3 Keep moving - don't take too
long to complete each section
of the game!

Stuck in a dismal
dungeon? Can't gef past a
24-fanged monster?
Missing that vital clue?
Just write with your
problems (and your
adventure solutions?) to

Sign stumps
CRASH, PO Box 10,
Ludlow,
Shropshire SY81DB

Sorry - your Stumps can't
be answered personally,
but as many as possible are
printed each month

A PLACE IN THE
SHADE

Micronet users can eet into

fr^rt^'^^^^^^ve
free hours on (he multiuser adv-
enture - open to novices and

howj co,l897 P* 1

For information on Micronet
"n S <0i)278 3143orwriteT'
Durrani House, 8 Herbal Hill

newt^H* 5f/ ^ ndre ^
new CRASH cewms column
wh,ch makes its debut this issue.

IT'LL BE ALL

RIGHT ON THE

NIGHT

Dear Derek

Thanks a million for printing my
v poet ic' Lips for The Red Lion in
Issue 42, It was great to see them
occupying dn important-looking
scroti. However (there's no
pleasing some people), I think I
should point out a small
typographical error. The last bit
should read not 'the Lord of the
Right', but 'Lord of the Night'.
The only reason I mention it is to
avoid accusations of political
bias, no matter how appropriate
comparisons between the Mire
Lord and certain right-wing
politicians might be.
CHRISTOPHER WARD, Mystic
Software

YOU MUST
REMEMBER THIS

Dear Derek

As promised many moons ago,
when I Mill had the spectre of A
level exams hanging over me and
devoted 25 nouns a day to
revision (well, it seemed like
that!), I've finally got round to
writing the Doomdark's Revenge
pokes program.

When entering the program
don't be disheartened by the
length of it - it's half the length
without the REM statements.
Leave out any lines between 601
and 681 you do not want, but you
must include the end marker (line
691). Also, only Ihe first data
block k checked, so with the
poke data you'll just have to
double ano triple check it
yourselyes.

Running the pokes program, it
will ignore the BASIC loader of
Doomdark's Revenge, but load
the headerfess code. It will (hen
black out for a minute till the
screen attributes flash on, but the
border will remain masked black
for a further minute. Don't worry
about this, it's just me being
clever.

The list below details all the
pokes:

1 NO MIST (lines 600-6(11) does
exactly I hat - no mist (o
restrict the view of Icemark.
MOVE THROUGH
ANYTHING (lines 610-61 1 1
allows you lo move at night
through (he icy wastes, to
move out of battles at any
time, not become immobile
when utterly tired, and to
move into any fortress or city
without approach or attack.
NOT KILLED BY DRAGONS
(lines 620-621) allows you to
pass through dragons, wolves

and so on without the fear of
being killed.

4 CHOOSE AT NIGHT (lines
630-651) is especially useful if
moving at night through use of
poke 2.

5 FREE WARRIORS (lines 640-
641 ). You or your fortress do
not lose any troops when
recruiting or posting. In other
words, an extra hundred
troops are created every time
you use post or recruit.

6 SEE SCREEN BUILD UP (lines
650-65 1 )♦ Every time you
move you see (tie new picture
being generated. It looks like
the landscape is advancing
towards you and is especially
useful in looking 'behind'
mountains and forests.

7 ALWAYS RECRUIT (lines 660-
661 ), If you use the approach
key the character will always
be recruited. You can even
recruit Shareth The
Heartstealer!

8 NO MOVEMENT AT NIGHT
(lines 670-671). With this the
computer does not move any
of the characters at night, it
only decides the battles* Only
to be used if you want a really
easy gameor for use with poke
9.

9 CONTROL ANY
CHARACTERS (lines 680-
683). When pressing
CHOOSE, all the 128
characters are listed in a total
of seven pages. To help you, all
those characters you have not
recruited are in blue {black is
dead, red is your side). This can
be used in a number of ways:

i) By pressing 5 on the list page
you can look through the eyes
of Shareth The Heartstealer
and see where she and her
armies Are, using it as a
warning for your troops.
ii) By use of poke 8 eliminating
the computer from character
movement you could have a
proper two-player game. The
first player would take
control of Luxor and the
second player control
Shareth, with the computer
there simply to decide the
outcome of (he battles. You
would have to use a pen and
notepad to note down which
characters Shareth controls
and it would call for much
honesty on the part of the
players. However, it would
produce a very interesting
game, either having to f ight
against Shareth who is
controlled by a different
strategy or by playing
Shareth and seeing the game
through her eyes. See it you
have a better strategy for
Shareth (ban the computer
does.
I hope you find these pokes
useful and I am sure you will find
many different uses for them,
especially with poke 9ii,

1 REM DOOMDARK'S REVENGE POKES

2 REM BYPAUL STEPHENSON

3 REM 19th JUNE 1987

4 REM WARNING

5 REM SCREEN BLACKS OUT

6 REM FOR 1st MINUTE

7 REM BORDER MASKED BLACK

8 REM FOR 1st 2 MINUTES
10 CLEAR 65535

20 LETP-23440:1.ETT-0:GOSUB200

30 IF TOI 0425 THEN BEEP 1,0: PRINT "ERROR

IN 1st DATA BLOCK" : STOP
40 LET P= 60000 : GOSUB 200
50 PRINT $0 ; AT 1 ,2 ; " START DOOMDARK'S

REVENGE TAPE" ; AT 15,0
60 RANDOMIZE USR23440
200 READA$:IFA$= J '"THEN RETURN
210 FOR F=1 TO LEN A$STEP2
220 LETA=CODEA$(E)-48-(7ANDA$(F) >"9")
230 LETA-A'16-t-CODE A$(F tt)-48-<7A N

DA$<F+1»"9")
240 POKEP,A:LETP=P-M:LETT=T+A:NEXTf
: GOTO 200

500 DATA"3ICB5C2l60EAi1445CD5"

501 DATA"016400F.DBODD213AB011"

502 DATA" 9001 AFD6F908F3CD6C0S"

503 DATA "30EF2 1 5 D 8006007 EEDb 7 "

504 DATA"7EEE5E772310F6AF3210"

505 DATA " B1 21 FF5A772BCB7420FA"

506 DATA"DO210O4011901B3EFFCD"

507 DATA " 76B0DD26001 10401 COC5"

508 DATA "B03FC33270B0CD69B0C9"

509 DATA'

600 REM NO MIST

601 DATA "3E1 832666EAf 32B563 "

610 REMMOVE THROUGH ANYTHING

611 DATA"21 181 9225 EB4"

620 REM NOT KILLED BY DRAGONS

621 DATA"3EC9324B83"

630 REM CHOOSE AT NIGHT

631 DATA "3E3E3254863EC332BF7A"

640 REM FREE WARRIORS

641 DATA"AF322987324F87"

650 REM SEESCRFEN BUILD UP

651 DATA"3E7A329965"

660 REM ALWAYS RECRUIT

661 DATA"3E3F32D57C3E1832407D"

670 REM NO MOVEMENT AT NIGHT

671 DATA "3EC932F681 325367"

680 REM CONTROL ANY CHARACTERS

681 DATA "21 3B9228F7321 328222"

682 DATA "91 7321 5D1 82293733EF1 "
682 DATA" 329573"

689 REM END MARKER

690 DATA"C325B1

PAUL STEPHENSON, Leeds
700 REM PAUL WINS TH/S MONTH'S £20 OF

SOFTWARE
710 GOTOfSSUF46

DB

PERFECT PUZZLES

Dear Derek

I am writing on quite a number of
points so I will be as brief as
possible. Firstly, on the subject of
graphic/text adventures. You
nave said you prefer adventures
with graphics - why? The only
adventure I've played where the
graphics added to the game was
Warlord, and this meant the text
had to suffer. In fact in many
cases graphics detract from a
game — The Secret Of St Bride's,
Level 9 games, for example. I

personally prefer longer text -
you've got to admit Level 9 games
without graphics are far better
man those with graphics.

Next, I would like to commend
you for the excellent Adventure
Trail Extra. It was certainly a job
well done, and maybe the
adventure section should be
expanded every month . . .

Also, 1 would like to put
forward a suggestion for a new
subsection entitled Favourite
Puzzles (or some more
imaginative title). In this section
readers could say what their

CRASH October 1987 95

■

favourite puzzle in an adventure
was, and detail what happens. My
favourite is in Worm Of
Paradise (Level 9) where the sign
'Dump Rubbish Here' has to be
moved to clear a pile of rubbish,
and put somewhere else to build
a new one.

S nicholls, Newcastle

Graphic vs text adventures: I've
been here before. The point is we
now have graphic computers
with 128K of memory, and I don't
think U*8 too much to ask for good
pictures AND meaningful text. I
do take your point when it comes
to the old 48K-only games,
though. As for your idea about a
new section for 'problems I have
loved*, it's an excellent idea, I'll
get thinking about it immediately.
DB

YOU WANT

PROBLEMS? I GOT

PROBLEMS

Dear Derek

I am writing this letter to talk
about the thing that makes or
breaks an adventure, the
problems to be specific. Yes, the
things that drive you up the wall
lor days till you finally write a
desperate plea to Signslumps
then realise the answer two
minutes after you have posted it.
We have read about the seven
sins of adventuring but 1 think an
adventure is affected mainly by
the problems in it.

1 The Classical Problem
Never having played the
original , I recently
bought TH&Serfs Tafamd
found myself able to pass
through rt relatively quickly
because nearly all of the
problems fall under this
category, simply because they
have been repeated in other
adventure games ior stories).
For example, water the plant
then climb up it. Swing over
river with rope (KentiHa).

2 The Obscure Solution
Problem

What about this for a re.il
palaver? In Return Jotd^n,
throw the sweet pea to the
Duija bird, it lays a brick.
Plant the brick whereupon it
turns into a house plant! Well
it/sail very well for the author
but what about the player?
Has anybody who has played
the game (Level 9's worst)
passed this problem w ithou t a
solution sheet? These are the
worst type of problem, the
type that can put you off
playing the game at all.

3 The Obscure Vocabulary
Problem

Thankfully not too common
anymore and extinct in the
upper-class adventures. You

96 CRASH October 1987

soon reach the stage of typing
in the obvious solution in
every conceivable manner
possible {a thesaurus wilt
help) but nothing happens till
you type it in Chinese!
4 The Logical Problem

The following problem in The
■vn was made hard to solve
because of my instinctive
reaction to place it under
category 2 or 3 (obscure
solution or vocabulary). After
finding neither the hoe nor
the rake were strong enough
by themselves to lever the
boulder off the path, I
removed my shirt, tied them
together and tried again -
SUCCESS! This problem
would be classified as
category 3 in a lesser
adventure but with the
excellent language parser in
The Pawn this can be made
common place.

So now, all you budding
adventure writers, it is tbe
problems that control the
playabrlity of the adventure so
take them from categories 1 and
4 only (classical or logical). With
the whole of the 1 28K available
and using PA W truly brilliant
adventures can be written even
to the stan da rd of The Pa wn. The
Pawn has achieved cult status
simply because of all the things
that can be done that aren't
connected to the final solution,
that is, all objects can be
examined (including
background), people can have
interactions in intelligent ways
(no set phrases like Slur lock).
Objects can be tied together or
filled even if they have no part to
play. Too many adventures fall
into the trap of only letting you
act upon solutions to problems
rather than giving freedom in
movement. Surely the Golden
Age is only just beginning in the
adventuring world,

J WILLIAMS, Lincolnshire

You lost me at one point, but
otherwise an excellent letter, I
particularly liked the Chinese
comment and the part about
getting the solution fust after
sending off a plea -I'm sure many
readers can relate to this. Stilt,
other readers maybe stuck on the
same parts of an adventure and
Signstumps provides help,

DB

ANOTHER ONE
HOOKED

Dear Derek

I used to think no discerning
player could be converted from
arcade games to adventures - but
now I'm eating my words!
Because I live within a short train

journey's distance of London, I
popped along to the Mkrofair in
search of cheap games. Indeed, I
found what I was looking for
Sentinel. Though I only took a
tenner I still had a pocket full of
change; consequently I hunted
for another bargain. For some
quite unknown reason I walked
over to an adventure stall.
Searching through I picked up
The Price OfMagik, a Level 9 adv-
enture. I suppose it was the
artwork that first attracted me to
it, but I couldn't help noticing
what was at the bottom of the
cover: 'A CRASH Smash . . .
CTWPick of the Week . . . ' etc.
'Gripes!', (thought, some
game!'. Readily parting with my
fast few pennies I left. Since the
first time 1 loaded The Price Of
Mngik I've been hooked; I didn't
realize just how much fun I had
been missing, To give some indi-
cation of how good Magik is, I 've
played it more than The Sentinel,
which is really saying something,
seeing as The Sentinel is probably
the best nonadventure game to
hit the good old Speccy.

This letter is aimed mainly at
so-called arcade freaks. If you
have never tried adventuring, for
Grudd's sake buy one (recom-
mended by CRASH of course)
and try. It's very annoying having
wasted years of computing no)
knowing what you are missing.
(AMES HOME, Kent

I can't really print your address
for swapping games - as you
requested - in an organ as dig-
nified as CRASH, fames, but do
put your swaps in local shops and
fanzines, which I'm sure will
elicit a good response. And keep
on adventuring - it's nice to see a
reply to those arcade chauvinists
who think all adventures are dry,
intellectual bores!

DB

MAKING A
HASHI OF
KOBYASHI

Dear Derek,

Please print the solution to the
Wisdom and Understanding
doors in Kei f&ru which

Ewan Mc Each ran of Staffordshire
submitted in Issue 41 . 1 have been
getting nowhere for two months.
If you can't print the solutions in
Signstumps, could you send a let-
ter with tnem?
DAVID CAYZER, Tyne & Wear

Well, David, I can't send you the
solutions — Adventure Trail is a
magazine column only, and I
haven't the time to correspond
with readers on a personal level
(so DON'T send self-addressed
stamped envelopes - I will

endeavour to answer as many
queries as possible
Signstumps).

But good news now - below
are solutions to the two unsolved
parts of Kobyashi Ham, (Ewan
McEachran sent in solutions to all
three parts of Kobyashi Nam for
the Adventure Trail Extra, but I
decided to print only the Knowl-
edge solution then, just to tan-
talise you!)

WISDOM

There are two ways to do this,
but mine is more fun.

1 Activate the solance. Pull it.
This will free it of the meat
block, IMPORTANT -activate
it again (this will deactivate it).

2 Go north. Analyse tunnel - to
find a cliff. Analyse cMT to find
an omask - like a gas mask. Get
it. Use omask.

J Go east till you find a giant
snail called a Silkoid. Activate
soiance. Cut antennae. Acti-
vate the solance again (to
deactivate it).

4 Go east quickly till you can go
no further. Swim centre to find
3 giant clam. Use solance,
which will block its jaws. Swim
clam. Gel pearl. Be careful not
to get the solance here — if you
do, death will follow.

5 Swim water. Ascend (any-
thing). You will now be on top
of a cliff. Descend cliff,

6 Go south then east to finish*

UNDERSTANDING

1 Analyse megavnit. Activate
megavnit. Get lasalite.

2 South, east, jump pit, east,

3 Driods will appear, and if you
analyse the yellow area you
will see a strange wheel. This is
the object. Do not go east.
Activate lasalite so it gives off a
strong magnetic field. Drop it
- this will attract the wheel,
but also the driods.

4 Go west. Throw the wheel into
the pH. One of the driods will
pick it up, and you then jump.
Hover driod,

5 He will remove you to his
perch. Analyse perch to find a
secret passage. Do not go
down. Go west. Analyse pass-
age to find the lasadmid near.
Activate the lasalite. Use it. Go
east.

6 Analyse computer - you will
find some buttons. Activate
computer. Then go south. Get
wheel (again). Retrace your
steps to the start. West, west,
jump pit, west, north. Then go
north to finish.

The ending is very tame.

DB

Send your queries to

SIGNSTUMPS,
CRASH, POBOX 10,
LUDLOW,
SHROPSHIRE SYS 1DB

FULL OF MONKEY!

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98 CRASH October 1987

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THE DIRT AND
ED ACTION

L D B E YOJJ RS

5

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&

I*

J > knife-edge world of the vJgilanw**Pl-' " ^
Is no place to rest, no ti me to think-

butlook sharp -there is always time to die! From the city subways to the gangiano l |hettos you will always

li«?J'Mi»ra

Taito now for your home computer. With all the original play features.
PLAY RENEGADE... PLAY ME AW*

twsed trom TiMo Corp 1986 Programmed kx Amanad, Spectrum, Cixnmodwu by Ima^ne Software

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NO.CT

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NTLINE

with Philippa Irving /

READ

ALL ABOUT IT

There's been an alarming slump in the number of wargames finding their
way to my garret in north Oxford. Either ail those brave people who write
wargames and expose themselves to my sarcasm have decided to go
on holiday, or the Poet Office has eaten the parcel containing them . . .
A couple of months ago I explained my ratings system in detail in
Manoeuvres, my column in CRASH'S Commodore sister ZZAP! 64 and
it seems fair that I should do the same In Frontline-
Ratings very artificial, and quite unscientific; but they are the accepted
way of summing up impressions in the world of computer-game reviews,
and a percentage breakdown system such as CRASH uses is a tot more
accurate and interesting than just giving single figures. This is the way I
think, about each rating;

Presentation is sometimes difficult to disentangle from Graphics, but
in theory it covers every aspect of the game except the game. The
packaging, the ease with which orders can be given, and the general
aesthetic impression the screen display gives are all considered.
Presentation isn't everything in a strategy game, but )ust as an exam
candidate with neat handwriting is more likely to get a sympathetic
marker than an illegible scrawler, a tidy and professional appearance
makes an immediate impression on consumers and reviewers.

Graphics in wargames are always a compromise. They can rarely do
as much to conjure up an atmosphere as arcade graphics can, and have
to be content with being representational. But this doesn't mean that
well -drawn and clearly-set-out graphics can't Improve a wargame.

Rules are extremely important in a wargame. particularly a historical
one. It isn't so much the case with Spectrum wargames, but some
Commodore games are virtually rufebooks with a bit of computer
animation. I always commend historical material and complain about its
absence, It's important that if the game structure is complex it should be

explained in sequential and idiot-proof detail, and personally I like to see
the game mechanics exposed - though other people don't.

Authenticity; taken with any Irteralness, no wargame is particularly
authentic. If you think about it, you wouldn't really want K to be - all the
blood and dead bodies and deafening shells and gunfire would not be
entertaining. But games can create their own atmosphere, and the player
can feel involved in the world the game reflects. It's the equivalent of our
willing suspension of disbelief when watching drama, and it helps, of
course, if there are no obvious factual blunders or intrusive bits of
gameplay.

Payability: all computer gamers know what pfayability is. It's the
quality that stops you pressing the reset switch, or pulling out the power
lead if you're still running a rubber model. It's the quality that can have
you zapping or collecting or assault-breaking into the early hours.
Though wargames, like adventures, are more sedate and detached than
arcade shpot-'erm-ups, you can still find seven hours slipping by
undetected If you get Involved In a realty playable game. Payability can
be disrupted by the smallest things, such as computer-opponent turns
which taki- --; too long and or scrolling menus which are just

slightly too complex to work. A lot of shallow and dead-end games can
be quite playable at first, and 1 comment on thai honestly.

Overall: a game can be greater than the sum of its parts, and I don't
feel that the Overall percentage rating has to be a cocktail of the
preceding ratings. Beautiful graphics or badly-produced rules may be
irrelevant if the game itself is a turkey or a classic.

The ratings are only my personal assessment In the main body of the
revfcews I try to be as descriptive as possible so you can decide,
irrespective of what final percentage ft gets, whether you want to buy the
game Or not.

ROUNDHEADS

Producer: Lothlorien
Price: £9.95

This is the first wargame I've seen
based on the English Civil War of
the 1 640s. which seems odd when
you consider how popular a
subject this is with
wargamers; battles between the
Roundheads and Cavaliers are re-
enacted every summer by
enthusiasts who delight to dress
up in period military gear and fight
It out in the name of a long-dead
cause. Roundheads is an attempt
to condense the entire period into
a Spec;

In October 1€42, the English
Civil War broke out between the
Cavalier forces of King Charles I
and the Parliamentary army led by
the Earl Of Essex. My history is
usually abysmal {an essential
qualification for a wargame
reviewer, for at least I can tell if a
game has taught me anything . . . )

► Horace Goes Skiing in the 17th century?

~ •: T:c . ■ i •. ■-■."■ z ■: -

mK N

s

JK f filflP?ft3 & hflnrt Ifr m*

Ik*.

but l do know that Oxford was the
Royalist capital during the war and
that King Charles lodged in
Christchurch college.

All the major cities in England
had been forced to Ghoose sides,
and the very brief scene-setting
paragraph in the Roundheads
rulebook says that as the game
starts the Parliamentary forces -
known as Roundheads - have
their greatest support in the south
and east They are also negotiating
lor Scottish support, which they
appear to get. Up and down the
country peasants have been
turning their pitchforks into
weapons, leaving their fields, and
rallying behind one cause or the
other. This has not done much for
the country's agricultural stability,
and food supplies are restricted to
what the passing troops can
lorage.

Roundheads ambitiously

attempts to recreate jthe entire war
at both lactjcal and strategic
levels. You can move whole
armies up and down me country,

CRASH October 1987 103

"

BRIEFING

Have any of you out there ever
played any game other than
Chaos? Tips for Games
Workshop 's apparently never-to-
be-forgotten classic, reviewed in
CRASH Issue 16, seem to account
for half the mail Briefing receives -
but this month's column Is
ABSOLUTELY THE LAST WORD
on Chaos* (She says - Ed)

James S Smith of Dumbarton
in west Scotland suggests some
unusual ways of using the spells. If
you've just killed an opponent,
stand one of your own creatures
on the same space and cast
Vengeance, Decree, or Justice Of
Dark power on it. If the spell works,
your creature will be transfigured
into a remarkable likeness of the
recently-slain opponent This
sounds like a bug!

Gooey blobs also can be used
in ways which nature never
intended. Cast an illustonary
creature, and allow it to be
covered by a gooey blob. When
the creature is freed, it is
disillusioned. In Chaos this is a
good thing.

If you mount a resurrected
horse, pegasus or manticore, you
become an undead creature. But
entering a magic wood, magic
castle ordarkcitadel tosesyou this
undead status.

tan Day of Preston in
Lancashire describes how to get

hold of a dramatic spell called
Turmoil, which works every time
and moves everything around the
screen - sometimes with fatal
results. It can only be found in a
magic wood, and can only be
taken if you're in a tree. And be
patient - the Turmoil spell only
appears every hundred turns or
so.

Moving on to that other
venerable classic Theatre Europe

|, which has recently been
rereleased as part of Conflicts
1 (reviews; issue 29 and 42
respectively), Paul Hindle of
Lancing in Sussex makes me
following suggestions:

Never ever launch more than
two nuclear strikes in a game,

Nevertum on the reflex system.

Don't Jet the computer choose
enemy cities as nuclear targets.
Enemy armies make much better
victims.

Chemical strikes are pointless -
they adversely affect your end-of-
game rating, and you run the risk
of nuclear response.

Play as NATO, because if the
computer plays NATO it doesn't
fight back!

Finally, a plea from M Berry of
North Bridgend in Wales: 'Has
anyone got a poke to stop the
whistling noise the artillery makes
during Arnh&m? It's driving me up
the wall!'

cutting down cornfields on the
way; or you can fight single battles
with small forces. The two phases
of the game demonstrate how
different reality scales affect
wargamlng, and it's Interesting to
see a combination of the grand
and the detailed. This feature
distinguishes an otherwise
unremarkable game.

On the strategic level, the
screen presents a map of England
which is featureless apart from the
noughts and crosses of the
opposing armies. In the one-
player game you have to be on the
side of the King, which gives you a
shght advantage at first; the
Cavalier armies are better-trained
and slightly stronger than the
Roundheads- But the Scots soon
come marching south to aid the
enemy, so the rules advise the
player to make the most of his
superiority.

Incidentally, the lack of choice
of sides in the one-ptayer game
makes the title Roundheads seem
a little inappropriate, and because
Roundheads And Cavaliers
appears on the bottom of the
screen I suspect there was a last-
minute title change.

The player has command ol two
types of armies at the strategic
level; real armies and 'trained
bands'. These latter consist of the
peasants-turned-warriors and
other loyal or rebellious citizens
from the towns, rounded up into
some sort of fighting force. They
can be used in battle, but they're
not particularly reliable and tend
to desert if they're moved too far
from home or think the odds
against them are too great.

Therulebook illustrates what the
Roundhead armies and trained
bands look like, but neglect to
make the distinction between their
Royalist equivalents. One has to
guess. My guess was that the large
round blobs were the armies, and
the smaller squares the trained
bands. Confusingly. the
instructions refer to the units as
"icons'. This may be a strictly
correct use of ihe word, but it's
certamfy incorrect in the context of

a computer game where 'icon' is
always used to mean a control
symbol Here, the control system
is a simple cursor-selection, which
allows the player to move armies
speedily. As the armies move they
gather food points, which doesn't
make sense; after all, wargamers
are more accustomed to armies
consuming food and resource
points by moving. A food riot can
therefore be quelled by sending
the troops on a quick back-and-
forth trip across the countryside.

As the cursor is moved around
the main map a window at the side
of the screen scrolls neatly,
showing a blow-up of the area
currently under the cursor. The
side window also displays more
attractive versions of the army
counters, with the Royalist army
rented as crowned heads
and the Roundheads looking like
genially smiling grandfathers. This
seems more useful than it is.

The close-up map doesn't
actually show any extra detail
apart from mysterious little
houses, invisible on the main map,
which may be intended to indicate
cities. It's difficult to tell, for the
rules make no mention of them.
There is no way of telling which
towns and cities are where,
something I regard as very
unatmospherfc. If there was no
room on the screen display there
ought to have been a map in the
rules to give a bit of colour and
structure to the landscape

The armies and trained bands
are defined only by their strength
and the amount of food they carry.
It would have improved the
coherence of the game immensely
if the armies had been identified,
even in the most rudimentary way.
As it is, there is nothing to give
them character and imaginative
life, and even if dire consequences
do follow moving a trained band
too far from its place of origin it's
not easy to keep track of where
each bunch of pickaxe-waving
peasants ought to be.

This is a pity, because in the
tactical-level battles there's a
great opportunity to tie the two

NTLINE

/

FORUM

THE BEST
OFENEMIES.

Dear Philippe

On the subject of opponents in
computer wargames, I feel 1
should write about Vulcan. 1 do not
claim to be experienced atpfaying
wargames, having only six to my
credit, but I feel that the computer-
controlled opponents in these
games lack a certain quality.

In Vulcan I would accuse "him '
of not checking his reports to see
if his units are capable of receiving
supplies or attacking. On selecting
the two-player option from the set-
up menu. I find many of his units
without supplies, or extremely
weak.

Knowing this falling in his skill as
a General, I have managed, as the
Axis player, on separate
occasions to wipe out the

104 CRASH October 1987

Northern Allied unrts and the
Eighth Army, The former was done
without moving more than the
Centauro division from the south.
The 1 5th and 21 st Panzer divisions
held the entire Engiish army at bay
by fortifying behind a wadi for eight
days. As the Allied units I have
managed to win 'The Tunisian
Campaign' in only eight daysl

Hidden movement could prove
to be an extremery important
factor in improving computer
opponents, I hope R T Smith does
not miss this worthwhile feature
out of his next game because of
what A M Wright said in CRASH
Issue 42. this month, Being unable
to see the enemy leaves the
element of surprise, I have
frequently travelled along a road

ferar

^jgunatocftfrgfrfla^B i l

► Rough edges spoil an imaginative concept In Roundheads

strands together. When you've
moved your armies around an
isolated, defenceless enemy unit
you can choose to enter the
tactical level, and the screen
display changes entirely to show a
battlefield. This, quite cleverly,
bears a dear relationship to the
landscape on the main map;
though the scale is quite wrong,
for you find yourself battling a! I the
way across the westernmost tip of
Cornwall. The combat is grandly
entitled me Battle Of York r or the
Battle Of London, or the Battle of
wherever you've decided to bash
a few Roundheads. That's a fine
touch, but it's offset by more basic
deficiencies of detail.

Though the strategic-level
display is reasonably polished, the
battlefield is a masterpiece of
primitive-style Spectrum and
looks like it's been drawn in
crayon. The background is a
glaring blank, the infantry units are
matchstick men, and the four
terrain types are represented very
simplistfcally. It is, unfortunately,
strongly reminiscent of those
extremely earty Specfrum games
like Horace Ooes Skiing.

The number of red matchstick

men the player finds opposing the
Roundhead blue matchstick men
is related to the strength and
number of armies he had ranged
against the enemy in the map on
the strategic level, and there's
something curiously satisfying
about this. According to the rules
the units are distributed randomly,
though they always start out in
clusters of their own kind.

Infantry, cavalry and artillery
make up the fighting force, with
the unexpected addition of supply
wagons. I assume that the supply
wagons are intended to represent
the army's food stock - that vital
statistic displayed in the strategic
map - but 1 see no reason why they
should be taken onto the
battlefield, unless the troops are
supposed to refresh themselves
with sandwiches and cups of tea
during slack phases in the fighting.
Really, they're there to provide
something vulnerable to attack
and defend, and if you see that
you're hopelessly outnumbered
it's a good idea to make straight
for the enemy's food wagons and
destroy as many of them as you
can before you get wiped out.

Orders are given to individual

and suffered heavy losses from a
concealed unit. I also enjoy leaving
one or two weak Italian divisions in
the bottom southeast of the map
ready to cut the supplies of an
overambitlous Eighth Army.

To improve the enemy
opponent, in Vulcan at least. I
would suggest two possibilities.
First, th© computer should check
his own reports, and second,
difficulty levels could be
introduced by which the computer
cheats to different degrees. He
could examine both your units'
positions and their reports,
thereby being able to plan his
attacks to greater effort. To
counterbalance this there should
be an option to play the computer
with open movement.

You have dropped the
opponent rating, it seems a
sensible move as it is impractical
to hope to assess an Al routine In
a week when you have so many
other things to do. You could,
however, publish an opponent
rating in a subsequent issue if you

have found the time to assess a
game more thoroughly.

A G Popkin, Haywards Heath

Unfortunately! rarely have the time
to return to a game once I Ve taken
it apart for review. I'm too busy
grappling with the next batch!

PI

NOT A PENNY
MORE . . .

I've had a letter from Roger King,
who's trying to establish a
magazine for Spectrum
wargames; he plans to Include
reviews, previews, interviews and
competitions. He desperately
wants to hear from people
interested in contributing, and
from anyone who could tei him use
a photocopier For under a penny a
sheet. Contact Roger at Ad Bury
Lane. Datchworth. Hertfordshire
SG3 6ST - and keep watch on
FRONTLINE and FANZINE FILE
for progress reports.

units with a cursor, in an
unsophisticated fashion. It is
difficult to extract from the rules a
clear understanding of how the
combat really works, ft seems you
can give each unit a single order to
attack and then watch as it carries
out the order, following the target
rf It moves.

This doesn't seem to work In
practice. I found the only sure way
to make an attack was to specify
each one individually, and
because this is a game played in
real time the old problems arise;
you can only deal with one unit at
one time. To be fair, the number of
units involved are small enough to
be manageable, though this style
of frantic, cursor-hopping play
does destroy the atmosphere. As
each attack is made, the 'before
and after' strength of each unit is
flashed at the bottom of th©
screen

Strength units tend to be
chipped off at the rate of one per
unit, with arvly minor and not very
predictable variations. Even
artillery units firing at long range
lose a strength point when they
make an attack, and this seems
illogical to me. I was disconcerted
to discover that my food wagons
made pretty invincible fighting
machines when 1 tried to attack
with them; either the rock buns are
pretty old, or there's a bug in the
program. The enemy's food
wagons are easy to destroy.

There Is some variety in the play
of the battle scenes. The
'defensible area' type of terrain
allows infantry to shelter from
attack, and though the woods and
hills seem to have no effect on
combat it's impossible to move
across rivers, And, like all
simplistic games, Roundheads
has a degree of tacky
addictiveness.

The battle lasts as long as It
takes for one side to eliminate the
other, or till you choosetoexit from
it The instructions claim that you
can only do this after 15 minutes,
but this is incorrect; maybe it's a
misprint for '5 minutes'. When
you're returned to the strategic
screen the appropriate army
counter has disappeared and the
attacking forces are depleted
according to the losses suffered.
This Is where I feel a sense of

Involvement could be generated
by giving the units names, names
carried over to the individual
divisions in the battle scenes. It
would be satisfying to know which
divisions belong to which army,
which are trained soldiers and
which are volunteer rabble. The
distinction vanishes into
anonymity at the tactical level.

There are several irritating
points of presentation. The rules
are vague and confusing. The
instructions on giving orders are
ambiguous, the Cavalier unit
symbols aren't shown, and there's
no warning that the game has to
be reloaded if you want to start
again, The game Is artificially
slowed down by the rule which
insists that three minutes must
separate each entry to tactical
battle, a restraint which seems to
be designed to make the two-
player game fairer. In the one-
player version it's simply irritating.

Roundheads isn't as bad as it
looks; 1 enjoyed it up to a point,
and see the potential of some of
the things it tries to do. But there's
a lack ofdetail , depth, atmosphere
and - somehow - solidity,
deficiencies which are all too
common in Spectrum wargames.

Presentation 70%

It's reasonably polished In places,
and the orders system is so
simplistic that it would be hard to
make it cumbersome

Graphics 60%

The strategic-level map is
presentable if unimaginative. The
tactical map. though serving its
functions, is In the Horace Goes
Skiing school of Spectrum art

Rules 50%

Hardly voluminous, considering
the potential of the historical
subject, and bordering on the

inadequate

Authenticity 55%

Real-time setting destroys the
atmosphere, and lack of

geographical information and unit
names doesn't help

Payability 70%

Certainly easy to get into, and
smoothly-flowing

Overall 59%

Some interesting features, but
missable

CRASH October 1 987 1 05

ALL TOGETHER NOW

PAUL SUMNER reviews the latest
compilations -there's gold in them thar
software shelves, if you know where to look

AcnviSKtN is afso getting to on me bundle bonaraa with a Lixastifm Prestige
compilation (see the CRASH offer do page 62 . . . ). Out of all four games The Bdokm
(on yet another compilation) is probably the best piece; the other three suffer badly
from conversirjnttjs caught from the Commodore,

E:

VER SINCE the Spectrum
stormed into the homes of
young innocent children,
compilations of previously
released games have been lurid n g
on the software shelves. From the
outset compilations were
purchased for quantity more than
quality - the largest collections
seemed to give more value for
money, more games per pound.
But as buyers became more
prudent software houses found
themselves having to be more
selective in what they put on their
cassettes.

TH€ BUDGET MARKET has just n

CflTOpi- ii wo distinct

approaches. On the one hand you have
The Power House throwing together moat
of their £ 1 ,99 releases, oast and pre

mdle of budget furt - Pomrplays.
eight games for £B.&9, None of the
games are very impressive, the point
being quantity rather lhan quality, On the
other hand you ri3ve Tynesofi look
the budget problem from a axnpletely
different angle- in the Micro Vaius
Pack you only get four {very old and not
very good!" games, but for the extra
cheap compilation price of E3;99.

No longer are compilations just
confections of rejected old games.
With the growing importance of
budget software in the sales
charts (see our feature on page
45), most compilations are now
slickly-presented and well-
advertised packages proclaiming
value for money. Most software
houses have even set up
departments which scour the
market for games to go on
compilations.

you MK3HT THINK summer Is all over
now, but in attempt to brighten up
everyone's lives US Gold has released
Summer Gold. In hue US Goto style this
iatest bundle of fun offers a wide range of
games, from old favourrtes like mjce
(Hew many times did you complete i!?i
Lev and Beach Head flto recent
-simulations; Tenth Frame and
Dmbvstm. And, like The Edge, OS Gold
throws In an adventure, Rebel Planet, to
counter the aggressive bashing and
Wasting of the arcade games. There's
nothing really bad in Summer Gold- what
you've got fs six respectable fuH-prioe
games for £8.99,

With the supposed summer
software slump now past, a whole
plethora of compilations is about
to be released to satisfy our
appetite in the dull time between
Toe PCW Show and Christmas.

This collection of compilations
shows the dilemma facing the
buyer on the high street. Should
you go for a great big bundle of
software that you've never heard
of? Or is it better to play safe with
compilations of well-established
oldies?

1 06 CRASH October 1 987

AFTEfl the success of star Games, Gremlin Graphics has quickly hit the streets with
Star ernes ft Now part of the US Gold conglomerate, Gremlin offers old fe .

the very popular Highway fhawnfr (originally from Vortex) along with another
CRASH Smash, Ultimata's Cybervn. On the same laps, in the shad&w of fltesa two
giants, can be found a coup's rerand The Eidolon. Of course

Gremlin also gets a look-in with the underrated and very playable T/artWawrand their
Gaunttet clone Avenger.

My advice is to stick with well-
known titles; at least that way you
won't buy a package with any
really rancid games. And whatever
you do don't discard a compilation
just because it contains a few
golden oldies -they're often more
playable than new games for
which more time has been spent
on presentation than on content.

If you're going out to buy a
particular game, it's worth looking
around on the compilations first.
Most full-price games reach their
peak sales within a few weeks, so
within a few months they can be
on compilations, where their sales

FOUOWING in the pain of Soft Aid and
Off The Hook, which raised £350,(100 and
275,000 for their respective charr
new label called Backpack releases
Kldsf/tay in midautumn and looks -set to
follow its predecessors. The worthy
cnarity this feme is the National Society

•> Prevention 01 Cruelty To C -
which will use tile profits to combat child
aau&e-csee the news pier-
Issuo 43). The contents range from the
1964 Ulbmate success Lunar Jet 1 '

'987 like Xeno, Oeacffvatarsafid
Mailstrom. Nine of the ten games scored
over 85% in CRASH - so Kxfspiay gives
you ejrcefreni value for money write
neipjng a deserving cause.

IF VOU LIKE life on The Edge, you'd better

liasabt 1. This 'co8e
edition'. brings together all Softek's and
The Edge's wis sir..:. 'jeered

the Spectrum software scene in 19JW.
b package Is wtlhoirt a doubt
Bobby Bearing: in this 3-D Marble
Madness-type game, the eporv
cute IttU in has to rose*

mate:i der picked up nearly

every computer award available and
manes the package immense value for
money, Also hidden :•■ Mfrlfe

The Edge's first adventure, Thar?
Spirit, it's not often we see adventures on
compilations, but maybe Cla$$lx fhas
something for everyo? i

will be steadier. If you're really
shrewd you could give up buying
individual games altogether, and
just get the hits all in one package
- though this way you tend to be
about six months behind the rest
of the software scene. Have a
good look around, there's bound
to be a compilation for you
somewhene.

Note: the information boxes on
this page give each game's
original CRASH Overall
percentage and then the issue in
which it was reviewed. N/R means
the game was not reviewed in
CRASH,

OCEAN'S big release for autumn looks set to start a csmpsetefy new trend in theme
compilations. Covering nearly every conceivablB sport. Game Set And Match brings
togeiher ten of tine most popular recreational simulations released in the Spectrum's
lifetime (in fact, 23 ii vxju count the subgames In Daley Thompson's Supeitest and
Hyper Sports). The onfy surprise is the inclusion of Super Soccarom the far superior
Match Day (because so many of you have already got the latter, I'm told) The package
includes three CRASH Smashes and two which were very near misses. So whatever
you fancy (in the way of sport!) Ocean seems to have got ft covered, Thte lavish package
of four cassettes should be at your locai sports centre . . . umm. compute shop now
at the reasonable price of £12,95. And if you've got a +3 you can get a two-dcsK
package for £17,95 (much less than a season ticket to Leeds).

KIDSPLAY
Backpack

Xeoo

Deactivator*
Wj^ttSHHW

Mnrsport

Monty On Jne Hun
Station

iVfer/sJro/n

Stestttta

Bounty Bob
tan m fatmaa

STAR GAMES It
Gremlin

Hlghwnr Encounter
Cytmrm

tariHtamr
femfffr

BtMiozot
Bdokm

GAME SET AND MA TCH
Ocean

6BA Boskettetl 37% 44

Kwmmi'3 Tennis 60% 33

Sufmr Soccer 54% 37

Batoy Thompson's Supertcst 78% 22

Barry McGuigan's Boxing 88% 25

CDS Pool 77% fi

Ping Ponu <-w~ a

World Series Baseball 81 % 1 6

Jonah Bariingtw '$ Sfitssii 67% 1 7

Hyper Sports 92% 19

bo* 01 tour cassettes £12.95
two Spaclrum . 3 flisks £1 7 95

POWERPLAYS
The Power House

Harctffes N/R

Sta0SfWl Nffi

fflwftypM 29% 40

odnam

Sworti&S&ieia
Tomb 01 Syrinx

MICRO VALUE PACK

Tynesoft

ftwwsdrww

n%&

Toty Tony

N/R

lib Strikes Back

42% 23

Stoetyard Bfvtis

Hffl

E3.99

CLASSIX 1

The Edge

toUbyAMiribf

94% 31

Brian Bloodaxe

96% 14

Start**

77% 10

P$ytra*x

69% 10

That's The Spirit

N/R

£8.96

SUMMER GOLD

US Gold

Tenth frame

55% 3B

Impossible Mission

76% 22

Rebel Planet

85% 31

Dambvsters

75% 21

Brvca Lee

91% 16

Bsactt Head it

14% 24

£8.99

LUCASFILM PRESTIGE

COMPILATIONS

Activision

KmwtfsRrtt

70% 40

Ballbtiuor

71% 2*

TheEkSoton

m m

Rescue Pit PfactaltB

76% n

tt.98

=E

£ MIII.TIPIIINT

AT LAST: THE MOST VERSATILE AND YET
EASIEST TO USE SPECTRUM PRINTER INTERFACE

FULLY compatible with Spectrum ( + }« Spectrum 128, Spectrum 2 t - 128K & 48K

and with add-ons like Interface l t Opus Discovery, VTX 5000, etc

INS TAN7L V usable - has EVERYTHING you will ever need in tts 8K ROM and 8K RAM

FREEZE button - to activate MULTIPRINT anytime - STOP any program, LUST it, SAVE or

COPY screens, use built-in MULTI-TOOLKIT, «re}set MULTIPR1NT, LPRINT, etc.

A JOY to use- MENU-DRIVEN with screen prompts, one touch commands, error*trapped, etc.

FULLY PROGRAMMABLE - line teed, width & spacing, margins, various COPY types (text, hi-res. shaded)

zes (whole or parts, standard or large), tokens - all can be instantly set AND programmed in BASIC
With 8K RAM EXTENSION (for m/code or data) + built-in MULTI-TOOLKIT + J 2m printer cable
Compatible with GE IE disassembler * Optional through bus to connect other peripherals * Fully guaranteed

gajgjj33jjj^w.tHTMC

Load ANY programs usual, stop > 1 tt ANY points SAVE it-,twod<$ {VERY time, itisWfylutomauc dot-proof. 1st sit ™<l watch
Menu-driven witii prompts and one-touch commands 1} P^sh button 2) Select function eMtmnrWtrWpnmfonv 3) inpui name
fl) bave program or screen wta^miGfOdnve^afadnv&Discovery Special versions also frji Disupte, Beta, Kempston (please specify))
Needs NO extra software, takes NO part ot SPECTRUM RAM -has ALL in its own BK ROM & 8K RAM
Extremely simply to use, friendfy. 100% reliable, lulty error-trapped, guaranteed - PURE MAGIC

Most powerful & efficient compressing for fast re-loadmg and taking minimal toom when SA VMG

Built-in MU.TI -TOOLKIT with extensive tactirties to study/rooo-ily/tfevetoc programs Essentia? for haefcers.

Thwugh extmsum bus * Programs s*mf with MUL TIEACE wn an tteir own (except hyper (ape Pick- ups)

MULTIFACE has wo versions: QUE or 128. Soft SAVE to TAPE, MICRODRIVE and DISCOVERY but

Saves also to WAFADRIVE, BETA inn KEMPSTQN
Works on any Spectrum but in 48%. mode only
Has a buHHn Joystick Interface (Kempslonj

mtWlAMinhaAMi-MtMMi-.

Applied magic tor the Spectrum hackers:

A unique combination of hardware and software
t? Inert can disassemble ANY program at ANY point
Just Install GENIE into MUL TIF ACE or MUL IIPRINT 8K RAM
extension, load ANY program, WNit, STOP it when you
wish and let GENIE disassemble it -it is SO simple. . .
GENIE can also DUMP to printer. SEARCH and FIND text,
op-codes, etc. VIEW and ALTER contents of memory or
Z80 registers, etc. Simple to use. ingenious, educational,
Essential for any m/code user - solid gold for hackers.

Saves ateo to DISCIPLE + tape at hyper speed
Works on any Spectrum - 4SK and t28K
Formats microdrrve cartridges to 100 • K

Complete music system: write, edit play, store and print jf~\
music with REAL NOTATION. Sheet music prirtt-outs, \T>T
great fun, ideal educational tool - superb value for money. \V?$k

The software W8& of transferring Spectrum programs.
4 utilities for Microdrive. 2 for Watedrive. 2 for Ducoverv.
litef for disc/cartridge maintenance. Ask for details,

WHggtef

Unique maze arcade adventure mixture. A CRASH SMASH,

Also avaifable= the VI DEOFACE digitizer- put your favourite pictures from a VIDEO CAMERA ^
RECORDER onto your SPECTRUM ! Options to SAVE, PRINT animate etc. HI-TECH FUN at its best

enclose a chegue/PO for E (l £ * Eu ™*» P te * se H Mease send

M f add C1 overseas £ 2 )

or debit my JT^ 3 J No

Z]

MULTIFACE ONE
MULTIPRINT
Card expiry GENIE GENIE 128

'*••" •■"• »*+*

Address _ * U ^ TYPeWR,TER

E39.9SO MULTIFACE 128 £ 44.95 Q

£ 39.95Q vy /through port £ 44.95 D

E 9.95Q VIDEO DIGITIZER £6900 D

£ 7.95D WRIGGLER £ 2.95D

TRANS- EXPRESS cartridge D dtekQ waferQ £ 9.95ea|

B#jl AUTME >#>#¥ <PK IYB 15 Hayland Close London NW9 OLH ^jj 24

hrs

01-200 8870 (eg

TOP GAMES
OCTOBER

~ ■

The three charts compiled from the votes of CRASH readers
most realist ic chart for gauging the popularity of Spectrum games -
il is the games that are being played that get the votes, not the
games that are in the shops this week or month,

And the votes are important, it's up to you to let us know what you
feel, so fill in the voting forms which live on the results paaes and
in FRONTLINE to make your voice heard.

If you don't want to carve up your issue of CRASH . we understand
Use a photocopy if you like, or copy the details from the voting forms
onto a postcard, or the back of a sealed envelope, and send that to
us tnstead.

Apart from the satisfaction of registering your vote, there 1 s always
the chance of winning a prize. Each month we drew 1 5 winners from
Tl"2? v ° iin Q form ^ received -five for the HOTLINE, five for the
ADVENTURE and five for the STRATEGY chart

^op P r, ze of E40 worth of software (your choree, not ours) and a
CRASH T-shirt is awarded to the first slip drawn from the HOTLINE
v^fSr^d another E40 of goodies and a shirt goes to the
ADVENTURE and £20 of goodies and a shirt goes to the STRATEGY

Four runners up from each ballot box collect aCRASH T-shirt and
a CRASH HaLSoget those votes in to the CRASH HOTLINE CHART
CRASH ADVENTURE CHART and CRASH STRATEGY CHART
PO Box 10, Ludlow, Shropshire SYS 1DB.

There's been a huge volley of votes for the Strategy Top Ten,
reports a Charts Minion on the scene -interestingly, though, the
strategists seem to share opinions, and there have been only 1 4
different titles listed In three months of the chart. CCS's Vulcan
and Firebird's Reoetstar Raiders have held the top since the
beginning.

First out of the upturned helmet was Matthew Verry of Dartford
in Kent; runners-up are Iain Turner ofSouthend-On-Saa in Essex,
David Brown of Stanford-fa-Hope, also in Essex, Stephen A
Graham of Carlisle, Mark Lawton of Stoke-On-Trent in
Staffordshire and Ian King of Tipton in the West Midlands,

Not much movement m the chart thia lazy summer, with nothing
new above Number 1 5; the heat's got to Cobra and Paper Soy,
though, and they've both collapsed. Note the new (►} sign before
the Issue 42 Smash Zynaps - this indicates that the game has
NEVER been in the chart before, whereaB (-) just means ft wasn't
there last month. Ocean drowns the other software house* with
almost a third of this month's Hotline titles, but US Gold's
Gauntlet Is stilt at the top for the seventh successive month . , .

This month 's £40 worth of software {plus the usual T-shirt) goes
to Ches Autt ofEccles near Manchester; nmners-up are C J
Wright of Whrmton Merseyside, Eric Stewart from the Isle Of
Lewis in the Outer Hebrides and James Trtheridge of Chandler*
Ford In Hampshire.

Strategy Top 10

fffi

VULCAN

CCS

2P/

REBELSTAR RAIDERS

FIREBIRD

3fs;

ARNHEM

CCS

4W

THEATRE EUROPE

PSS

*f-/

DOOMDARK'S REVENGE

BEYOND

*«

TOBRUK

PSS

im

BATTLE OF BRITAIN

PSS

*H

THEIR FINEST HOUR

CENTURY

»H

GALLIPOLI

CCS

10 W

DESERT RATS

CCS

<*r

143

^t^

Hotline Top 20

1 (1) GAUNTLET

US GOLD

2 (5) HEAD OVER HEELS

OCEAN

3 ffl ENDURO RACER

ACTiVISION

4 (6) URIDIUM

HEWSON

B(7) ELITE

FIREBIRD

6 (9) MATCH DAY

OCEAN

7 (12) BOMBJACK

ELITE

8 (2) PAPER BOY

ELITE

9 (16) BARBARIAN

PALACE

10 (4) COBRA

OCEAN

11 (8) ARKANOID

OCEAN

\2(19) THE SENTINEL

FIREBIRD

13 (1 7) ALIENS

ELECTRIC DREAMS

\A(11) STARGLIDER

RAINBIRD

15 H THE GREAT ESCAPE

OCEAN

16 (101 FEUD

MASTERTRONIC

\HW ZYNAPS

HEWSON

18 H BATMAN

OCEAN

19 M GHOSTS "N» GOBLINS

ELITE

20 W AUF WIEDERSEHEN M.

GREMLIN GRAPHICS

The Hobbit makes rt to Number One, where its parody The
BoggH was in Issue 40. But darkness is closing in on Fairiight II,
and Spellbound looks like slipping back down to third place,
whence it rose to the top last month.

David Barrows of Northampton is the big winner, but don 1 forget
these other adventurers: James Cooper of Newbury in Berkshire,
Chris Beck ofRotherham in South Yorkshire, Allan Price of
Leeds, amf Peter Chessman of Wateriooviife in Hampshire, who
met his Waterloo trying to find the voting form -presumably in
issue 43 where, sorry, we left it out. (Lloyd getting too much
space for the Forum again . . .)

Adventure Top 20

1 (2) THE HOBBIT

MELBOURNE HOUSE

2(4) HEAVY ON THE MAGICK
3 (1) SPELLBOUND

GARGOYLE GAMES

IAD.

4(3) KNIGHT TYME

5 (5) LORDS OF MIDNIGHT

MAD.

6 (11) DOOMPARKS REVENGE
7W THEBOOGIT

BEYOND

BEYOND

8 H BORED OF THE RINGS

9 (10) LORD OF THE RINGS
10 H FOU RTH PROTOCOL

CRL

CRL

MELBOURNE HOUSE

11 (13) GREMLINS
1 2 (6) STORMBRINGER

CENTURY HUTCHINSON
ADVENTURE INTERNATIONAL

13 (17) SHADOWFIRE
14(7) RED MOON

MAD.

BEYOND

15 (16) THE PRICE OF MAGIK

16 H MARSPORT

1 7 (-) NEVER ENDING STORY
18/

LEVEL 9

LEVEL 9

GARGOYLE GAMES
OCEAN

FAIRLIGHT II

19 (12) DRACULA

THE EDGE

CRL

20 (-) DUN DARACH

GARGOYLE GAMES

GET INTO CRIME!

In the late 1990 s the streets of New York are a Jungle.

You are the Ice cool leader of a gang of drug crazed

terrorists. Your main goal Is to become the richest,

toughest and most notorious gang in the city.

FREE!

SEND YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS TODAY FOR YOUR FREE TRIAL OF
IT'S A CRIME THE WORLDS MOST POPULAR PLAY-BY-MAIL GAME

Write to :-
KJC GAMES, PO BOX 11, CLEVELEYS, BLACKPOOL, LANCS FYS 201

Aloha, and welcome
once more to the
wondrous hobby of
play-by-mail gaming
with BRENDON
KAVANAGH. 'So/
you ask, 'what has
happened in the PBM
world this month?'
(Well, it's one way of
making

conversation.) The
answer: there's a
special feature on
KJC Games's . . .

EARTHWOOD HINTS AND TIPS

MATTHEW AYRES from
Southminster in Essex has sent

some basic tips for new
Eerthwood players. Matthew was
a joint winner at the end of
Earthwood 20 and comments that
though he enjoyed the game there
is definitely room for Improvement.

According to Matthew, the
game's biggest letdowns are its
map and the lack of extra features
In the endgame.

Anyway, on with the tips . . ,

1 Never forget that J the pen i 9
mightier than the sword' - also
bear in mind that one cannot
function properly without the
otherl

2 Of Earthwoorfs 35 cities, only
1 7 are inhabited at the start of
the game.

3 Player characters should try to
ally themselves with a nearby
race to %har& cities in the area.

4 The best cities are those near
the edge of the map with high
food production. If possible,
secure a group or 'cornerfuir of
cities; cities not on the front line
can support those that are.

EARTHWOOD

EARTHWOOD may be vaguely
known to CRASH readers; < ; 1
fantasy game upon which Jade
Games is accused of basing Its
defunct Arcadia. But KJC
Games's Ea/fhwooo'is well-
established.

It caters for 25 players. The
player takes a rote (Ki ng or Wizard ,
perhaps)- and, as in most games,,
what you are affects what you can
and cannot do.

Besides your main character,
you have control over three
independent groups of creatures;
your character must always be
with one of these groups, and
you're kept aware of what's
happening to the other two.

The game is set on a large map

with 35 cities. The object is to use
your groups and your powers
(magical and diplomatic) to gain
control over the majority of the
cities. This Is done by a mixture of
exploring, spying, trading, fighting
and avoiding monsters'.

Earthwoodis computer-
moderated and seems quite
popular. Each game should last 1 8
months (according to KJC Games)
-provided you're not knocked out
earlier!

Startup costs £5, for which you
receive the rutebook, setup and
the first three turns. Each turn
thereafter costs £1 .50.

Write to KJC Games at 5
Vicarage Avenue, Clev&leys,
Blackpool, Lancashire FYS 2BD,

SPECIAL OFFER

A NEW VERSION of Earthwood, called Earthwood- The Sea Kings, will
be launched on October 1 1987. This will be a naval version of the old
game, replacing cities with islands in a big sea infested with monsters
and Non-Player Characters!

Anyone new to EITHER Earth wood game can use this CRASH voucher
with their first payment to claim two extra free turns -so that's setup, the
rulebook, and five turns for a fiver.

Don't forget to Jell KJC Games whether you're starting Earthwood or
Earthwood - The Sea Kings*.

5 Most city tactics are
unfavourable to the defender.
so concentrate your forces in
tight, strong groups wherever
possible.

6 With a bit of forethought you can
predict where you might
encounter Non-Player
Characters (IMPCs) - for
example, tree fairies in
woodlands . . .

7 The secrets of success are
good diplomacy and control of
cities. As most recruiting is

done from cities (and they are
the only suppliers of f ood and
gold), they are vital if you don 't
have any good alliance ties.

8 Take an active part in the game.
Players who ignore diplomacy
or are totally impassive
invariably drop out (or are

jcked out) because there's
no excitement for them.

Thanks a lot, Matthew. Has
anyone efsegot tips for games not
yet covered in PBM Marl box?
Send them inJ

Name ...
AdoTess

Postcode

77ite special voucher from issue 45 of CRASH entitles a new player in KJd
Games's Earthwood or Earthwood - The Sea Kings to rwo extra free
turns - in addition io the setup, rulebook and three free turns you m
your £5.

Just send this voucher (the original, please, not a photocopy!) in with
your application and startup

The offer is valid as long as the voucher fs received by KJC Games on
or before November 23, and needless to add onty one voucher may be
applied to each startup (otherwise Guru Denise would be playing free for
18 months . . . }

CRASH October 1987 111

PBM NEWS

NEWTY BUT
NICE

STEVE NEWTON of Newty
Games is seeki ng a new GM for hre
game Faction Magician, covered
m CRASH Issue 41 . He writes: 'We
are i n dire need of another GM (the
response from your article was
quite incredible, which has helped
lead to our current overstretched
situation, so I hold YOU
responsible (!)). The pay am t great,
but It'll buy a beer or six on a
Saturday night down the pub and
it 's great fun. I'd be grateful if you'd
send out this plea to the populace
and ask those interested to drop
me a line with a few details about
themselves.

'Our turnaround time has
doubted - some of our players are
having to wait up to ten days for
their reply, so any help would be
appreciated

If you have the time, inclination
and commitment to GM a game of
Faction Magician then drop a line
to Steve.

Faction Magician has a new
address: Druids Cottage, Cam
Brea Villages. Redruth, Cornwall
TR153BL.

But PLEASE bear in mind that
there's a lot of responsibility
involved in GMing a game!

NOVA GEN

I'VE RECEIVED lots of letters

wondering what's happened to
Conquest- it seems turn reports
suddenly stopped arriving,
without explanation. Well, DON'T
PANIC!'!

In this month's mailbag was a
letter from a new company called
Nova Productions, Nova has taken
over the management of
Conquest from Conquest Gaines,
and has been operating a
supposedly improved version
since June!

According to Nova's Laurence
Norman, the original version of
Conquest was too complex and
time-consuming. Steve Brunt
wisely redesigned it, but failed to
playtest the new version. Result?
Numerous rule changes and an
unreliable turnaround.

So Nova has redesigned some
areas of the game to make it more
playable, and improved
turnaround to one or two weeks in
the process. Future developments
could well include computer
moderation . , ,

A Conquest startup now costs
E4, and the turn charge is £1 .50

1 1 2 CRASH October 1 987

IT'S AN

ORGANISED

CRIME!

NAB SOFTWARE, GMsof
Aegyptus {an involved US game
based upon ancient life - review
coming soonfer or later)), has
imported another game from the
Yanks. Family Wars is set in
American cities during the
Twenties and Thirties, Players
become 'kingpins'' in a crime
family, and you have to control
your own turf while expanding
your territory and influence in the
political arena.

Alliances are possible, though
different victory conditions then
apply.

Family Wars sounds a bit like It '«
A Crime! with knobs on; I'll give it
an overview in CRASH in a few
months' time, when I've seen the
rulebook.

NAS's Nick Barnett points out
that the game ia entirely computer-
moderated and should last for
between 40 and 50 turns. He
hopes to offer three turnaround
schedules (weekly, fortnightly and
three-weekly) at different rates.
Thus a game could continue for
between one and three years.

For further details, write to NAB
Software at 7 Oakwood Drive,
Aspley, Nottingham NG8 3LZ.

with no extras. I'm curious to see
howthe game has changed, so Vm
starting up very soon; while
waiting tor a PBM Mailbox report,
you can contact Nova Productions
st PO Box 685, Colchester, Essex
C04 3SX,

► Conquesfs new-style compute* -
generated turnsheets are a great
improvement on the old
handwritten ones* The map's
impressive, too!

PBM FORUM

A POSTCODE
WRITES

Dea? Brendon

After a bit of indecision, I finally
joined this band of half-crazed
psychopathic megalomaniacs you
call PBMers. I am now enjoying
Vorcon Wars 84. Thank you.

But I have a grumble, If our turns
are late, do we have any
comeback to the Post Office? For
example, my turnsheets sent from
Bracknell have thrice been
repostmarked: once Dundee,
once Perth (what? Australia? -BK)
and once York. Dundee and Perth
I can understand, but since when
was York in Scotland (Oh - BKfi

I could understand these
troubles if there was no postcode,
but since PA36 4BY is unique to
Ken ta lien {where I live), and is
printed on all of my turnsheets, I
am a little confused.

I don't know if it happens in the
other direction, but I bet it does.

Is there anything I can do? it
don't 'arf slow things down. I
actually missed the first turn of
Game 1 00 because f was
cheapskate and used second
....

Angus Garfield Rae

Appin, Argyll

Scotland

A sad tale - but are we really only
HALF-crazed?

If I were you I'd send my mail by
recorded delivery, It 'II cost you an
extra 20p for each letter, but it's
worth it for the peace of mmd.
There is no insurance offered for
cash enclosed in your letter, but at
least the Post Office guarantees
delivery. Your only other option is
to deliver It personally — a touch
impractical, I suppose.

BK

WE STAND
TOGETHER

Dear Brendon

After receiving my It's A Crime!
results sheet I noticed that Game
1 4 is the official Ca VG qamel
Apparently, because of good
publicity 400 or so C&VQ readers
are taking part in It's A Crime! 1 4.
So, fellow Game 14 CRASH
readers, lets ally and CRASH
Smash them , , ,

Stephen Grant

Brighton

Sussex

Not a bad idea - though
remember, Stephen, we have a
few hundred players scattered
about In an earlier game . . .

BK

FANTASTt

Dear Brendon
I thought I'd write in to tell
everyone about the game Further
Into Fantasy.

After applying for startup I
received the rulebook and games
magazine within one week. When
I opened the package 1 was
astounded by the quality of the
rulebook, which has a coloured
glossy cover and detailed informa-
tion apout the game printed neatly
upon its glossy interior - very pro.

Further Into Fantasy is a fantasy
Dungeons And Dragons-style
game where the player role- plays
as a warrior, sage or priest in the
land of Dorm. Quite mystical.

I sent away for my first turn
immediately and four days later I
received another booklet (fffled
with player messages and news of

PBMFAtZ

TWO low-priced zines have come
to light in this month's maifbag.
The first is a selection of three
games run from Anthony Brown's
address at 42 East Park Avenue,
HoldemessUoad, Humberside
HU89AE

Anthony and a few of his friends
run a boxing game, a wa/game^
and a fantasy game. They charge
40p per turn (to cover costs), rf
you 're interested, send Anthony
an SAE and he'll write back to you
as soon as possible.

And Paul Hartmenn, who lives
in Rotterdam in the Netherlands,
wrote to say:

"Dear Brendon

I have oeen following your column
eversince itstarted and I thi' ,'
high time I wrote you a letter.

Unfortunately. PBM is not very
known in the Low Countries,
though I'm trying to reverse that
course with all my might. One of
the things I have done has been
the founding of a company to pro-
duce 100% Dutch games.

To date I have been running my
company (Fantasia Arena) for just
over a year and slowly people are
opening their eyes to this wonder-
ful hobby, though interest Is mini-
mal compared with that of Britain
or the USA as yet.

Recently, John Nicholson lei us
run his game Super Vorcon Wars
in a Dutch version. We also run two
other fully computer-moderated
games, both tactical space war-
fare, so we are maki ng some prog-
ress.

If any of your readers are

I<: FANTASY

the game's progress), along -.vitn a
completed character sheet, a fact
sheet, my turnsbeet and a
coming Jetter.

After playfng for only a few turns
I am convinced that this is THE
best game available. Please print
this letter to let other readers know
about this g

Justin Taylor

Newton Abbot

South Devon

Thank you, Justin. Laboratory
Games's further into Fantasy is
indeed very welt-produced; for
. details sendan SAEto Lab-
oratory Games at Box 66. 19 Col-
burne Street, Swindon, Wiltshire
SN1 2EQ.

BK

—

WNEFILE

interested in playing a Dutch game
then they shoufd feel free to write

isia Arena at van Bas-
senstraat 118, 3067 ND Rotter-
dam, The Netherlands.'

Paul writes a PBM section for
the fanzine Conflict Gazet (double
Dutch to me); he also plays ten(!)
PBM games, so he'll be in next
Mplomatic Directory,

THAT ADDRESS
IN FULL

IF you're rn the PBM trade and
you'vegot some news to pass on,
or you want to share your PBM
and tips with hundreds of
thousands of rapt CRASH readers,
drop me a line 1 Write to: Brendon
Kavanagh, PBM Mailbox,
CRASH. PO Box 10, Ludlow.
Shropshire SY8 1DB.

If you're sending an entry or an
update to Diplomatic Directory,
even if it's enclosed with another
letter PLEASE write ' Diplomatic
Directory' on the envelope so it
can be processed quickly'

+001 Adrian Nea!

43 Marketstead Estate, Kinon, Bo&ton,
Lincolnshire PE20 ISL
GAMES: Vorcm Won 72 & 78; Capuol
IS; EanhtuoodSl; Arcadia 6; Scar Empires
I; Conquest

•002 Jason French

78 Princes Road, EUacombe, Torquav

TQl IPA

GAMES: Vorcm Wars 75 (Commander

BLJTAD)

*003 Travis Smith

27 Shannon Crescent, Rraunstone Frith,

Leicester LE3 fiNW.

GAMES: Siarglohe 4 (SS Belle Juke)

+.004 Robert Darbyshirc
22 Thornton Gate, ClevJeys, Lanes, FYS
1JN

GAMES: It's A Crime! I (Death War-
riors); it's A Crime! 4 (Megacity Bitu$}

+005 Stuart MilUnship
17 Grnvenev Gardens, AmoSd, Nottin-
gham NG5 GQW

GAMES: Vorcon Wars 75 [Commander
SHUTUN)

+006 Mr G C Manganoni

109 KiRfs Road, FamcomtHt, Surrey

GU7 3UE

GAMES: Saturnalia;- Craximoffs World;

Explorers of Orion; Lands of the Crims&r>

Sun; Aes;Mark of Chaos; Untamed Land;

Vesutrian

•007 Mr C J McCarthy
39A Seavicw Road, Liscard, Walksey,
Mcrseyside L.45 4QK
GAMES- Starglobe I; Star Empires 1;
Vorcon Wars 19; Saturnalia; Fleet Man-
oeuvres PI 07

+008 Scott Macfarlane

2 Broomadc Terrace, Costorphuic, Edin-
burgh EK 12 7LZ
GAMES: Vorcon Wars 60; Super Vorcm

Wan 7?

+009 Paul Davidson

51 "VPaierioo Road, Prestwick, Ayrshire,
Scotland KA9 2AA

GAMES : Vorcon Wars 66 (Commander
PEP1SH); Arcadia; Conquest

+010 KevWasey

9 Clarkson House. Mavsouk Road, Bat-
wrsea, London SW112BP
GAMES: Eartkwood 30

*011 Ian Hudson

53 Deepmorc Close, Alrewas, Nr Burton-
upon-Trcnt T Staffs

GAMES: Vorcm Wars 65 (Commander
PEST1B); Super Vorcon Wars 77 (Com*
mander FRUGAD); World of Vengeance
(Ian '$ Invincibles nr Bury St Edmunds)

+013 Mike Adams

774 Hohnefield Road, Liverpool, Merse-

GAMES: Vorcm Wars; Conquest; It's A

Crime! 4 (Priests)

-+014 David Lane

23 Florence Road, West Bridgford, Not-
tingham N92 5HR
GAMES: Casus Belli S; Player 16

+015 Martin Higgles

Wallasey Road, Wailesey, Meraeysidc

L44 2AG

GAMES: Vorcm Wars72;Ii'sACnme>4

+016 Cliff Frost

175 Queens Road, Leicester LE2 3FN
GAMES: Saturnalia; Arcadia; Ear-
tkwood 44; Kings of Steel 1 7; Arcadia ; It's
A Crime! '; Swards and Shields

* 1 7 Robin van den Yssef
Smaragdlaan 1 72, 2332 BX Leiden, Zuid
Holland, Netherlands
GAMES: Vorcon Wan 71 (Commander
TREBlbt); Starglobe 3 (The- Dutchman)

+018 P Branscan

Cac Mari Pwn House, Thomastown,
Mrrthyr Tydfil,, Mid Glamorgan, South

Wales

GAMES: Its A Crime! 2 (Death)

•019 Steve Vkkcn

26 Swinton Court, Harrogate HG2 0BB

GAMES: Soccer Star: Saturnalia; It 's A
Crime! 4; World of Chaos

+020 Banuby Deikr

1 1 Priory Grove, SiockweU, London SW8

2PD

GAMES: Starglobe 4

+021 Stephen Holt

27 Rosemarv Road, Sptowstonj Nor-
wich, Norfolk NR7 8ER
GAMES: Vorcon Wars 61 (Commander
BRIDERj; It's A Crime! 4 (Figkting

+022 Kevin Pack

Walnut Tree Lodge, 9 Kings Meadow
Lane, Higham Ferrers., Northampton-
shire NN98JE

GAMES : Eartkwood; Saturnalia;
Sutrgbbt 4; Orion's Finger; It's A Crtmt!
3; Casus Belli; Acs

+023 Matthew Hanson
10 Dcnby Lane Crescent, Grange Moor,
Wakefield, West Yorkshire WF4 4EB
GAMES: Starglobe 4 (SS Otttdtu*

Arcadia

+024 Gavin Marshall

36 Spur Road, Orpington* Kent BR6

OQL

GAMES: Vorcon Wars 71

+025 Owen Whitehead

213 Part; Road, Bam&ley, S70 1QW

GAMES: Aei {'Rtllion ' - $ Side), Siw-
ruilia (Grendl of the Web), Enchiroilon
(Brothers w Arms), It's A Crime {Brothers
m Arms), From The Mouth off Jell
World i i pn Kerr), Soccer Star

(Mortttng Star RS League)

+028 John Kemp

9 Wold View, CwMM, Lincoln, LN7

6UU.

GAMES: It's A Crime! 4 (Neus Yorh

Astassvn), Arcadia 8 (Lord. Ceniaurus at

Jihad City. F

+029 Milan Petronic
24 Dell Road, Kings Norton, Birming-
ham, B 90 2HZ
GAME: Arcadia 13 (Drang Dm)

+030 JCFowi*r

11 Reacnnstield Place, Si Agne4,

Cornwall, TR5 0SZ

GAMES: Starglobe Three, Arcadia 8

• 031 Kevin Edwards

52 Woodlands Road, Irchesfer, North-

ants NN9 7BU

GAMES: Vmon60 y lt t iA Crime! 4, City

of Strife.

+ 032 Jason CottreU
17 Back Lane, Harrington, Cam hi, CB2
5RF

GAMES: Saturnalia (Axil Tawnm),
(PS)

+033 Michael R Stannard
44 Harrington Street, Cleethorpes,
South Humbersidc, DN35 7AZ
GAMES: Arcadia 10 (More!:.
Lhiknownm Sewn Springs

+034Malct>lm Sams

76 Mount Road, Canterbury. Kent,

CT11YF

GAMES : Soccer Star {Kibnore Oilers}.

Bradley's Football (tftntam Oiln-c

+035 Paul Davidson

5 1 Wa tcrioo Road, Prestwick, Ayrshire ,

Scotland, KA9 2AA

GAMES: Vorcm Wars 60 (Pepish),

Arcadia 7 { Ped at Moriqstendi Cay), Con-

qtust (Anar Nation, maps Wl9j

+036 S Davies

16 Clara Street, Ton-Penlre, Rhondda,
Mid Glam, S. Wales, CF41 7HQ
GAMES: /A /I Crime! 4(gang315), Vor-
con Wan 64 (Chotuh >

+037 S Wyatt

60 St Andrews Road, Shoehuryncs&,

Es.se*, SS3 9JJ

GAMES; Vorcon Wars 13 (Prifvn), Vor-

cmWttn78(Sathat), It'sA I

. , I (WtHHuana
Alliance}

+ 038 Richard Goff

20 Inglis Road , Colchester, Essen, COS

JHU

GAME: Arcadia 12 (player I ?)

* 039 J ason HugKi B I

35 Garralts Lane, Ban*t cad, Surrey,

SM72ED

GAME; Saturnalia (Vetrtx)

+ 040 Dean Stuart

26 UUswatci Avenue, West Auckland,

Bishop Auckland, County Durham

DLI4 9LR

GAMES: Vorcon Wars 69 (TOO! '

Vorcon VarsSS (TRIBER); Conquest; /r*j

A Crtme! '? '(Gang 26? 'i;Si Valentin-

Massacre

CRASH October 1987 113

■ AH« .

ElM%4

TiiJiS

4 Smash Hi'.-.

»nw»p«*
for any

fi

^m^y^g

BIG

. II K.-U

''"*?, I

SPECTRUM I(

r-SHil-* l_

,1

•

"^

SABOTlttR Tt I

Mtatta(4iiaH

rc-

t

«».<-*-<•

|| _ £i^_ 1

,.' .- r-.vl'""

r

fc

^^sM

•

SIGMA

1 7 <S

BIG 4 - VOLUME II - RRP 9.95
Spectrum Commodore 64 Amstrad CPC

Available September 21st
SAME PRICE! -- Commodore and Amstrad DISKS 9,95

D Ourell Sales Dept, CftStde Lodge, Castle Green, Taunton, TAI 4AB. Give your name,
addieiy ijsmr I computer type, and whether for disk or cassette.

t hn U r ordering service by credit card (BARCLAYCARD visa and ACCESS mastercard).

Hi-ND FLASH? tVH4r$ SOFT Ati' SOU fiwy

' jms "ARSH'Awr?,.. A/ms Mom/

CRASH October 1987 115

4*

•w

Contact your nearest computer store

lor details on full range or clip f g?

the coupon. f x<0

/.A

Prices Irom £5.95 - £29.95

Eurornax Electronrcs Ltd,
FREEPOST Bessiogby
Industrial Estate
Bndjj ngtonYQ164ST
S? 0262 602541

SJf

/J'

Wl'^ Access Accepted v^ <d^

f

«r

if

& .*«►

□

D

□

HBNIC

A diminished and
inverted JON
'NORMAN' BATES
stabs

Simon N Goodwin
the shower - no,
sorry, discovers
Techtricks's

computerised dictionary of chords, and
previews software for the Ram Music
Machine

I PROMISED th: ! Id

review synchronization devices for

Find my Ititrack tape
recorders.

Well . , , sorry an 1 all that, but
the things f wanted lo comm-
and contrast ha v

materialised at the Bates Motel. As
we go to press v\ ■ , ■ r wo

iigers flashing
(should thai read ' fumbling' ?} over
an agei ng word processor, I guess

■iogeton the phone,
engage Nag Factor 9 aj
encourage all Iris long- holiday
merchants to stump up review
products.

One software house that d
leap off to spend a fortrv
floor at Qarwick-On-Sea was
Tech! ,rtg

working in a recording

o.ihe brains behind
Teohtricks spotted, as several
other companies have, a ne^

arket lor low-cost, effo

isful music software. Not all

nave the cash or desire to
splash out on several hundred
pounds' worth of 16-b I
and allow the Spectrum to gather
dust in the corner of the stu":
bedroom.

I off Techtriek s' s production
line is a chord computer -
Compaohord. The concept is
simpie, If you've ever bought sheet
music of a Top 2Q. sons/:
will have se> as Hie

shorthand chord symbols: C7.
Gdim.A6,{Z

Plonking your way ihrough these
is an arduous task when you need
lots of chords to play the pieo:
you know two chords - one is C

!• other one isn't!
One possible solution is to buy a

«ti book forr-
keyboard, usually called
something bright like 5,000
Chords. This

are you quite a lot -I W
I've tried them. Thereareals::
miniature chord computers with
LCD; very smart and very pricy. In
between these options is
Techtricks's Compachortf.

id up and you get a keyboard
display. Enter the name of the
chord you want and it appears on
the screen in the form of asterisks
onthocorroi ''schofceot

chords is very comprehensive.
though not alter ■ <),end

quite enough fort-,
player to cope with, What's more,
they're Quite ac& no

dangers dropped.

Compschordmtt cope with
major, minor, diminished,
augmented, sixth, seventh and
ninth chords and any crossbreed
of those categories, Quite ti{ \

you try to put In achord
Isn't used, such as a
diminished sixth (which only exists
in theory). It can invert any chord -
ib rearrange-then*
three or fou r inversions . and
for kicks you can get it to run upthe
scale onscreen.

Ail. p.ichord 'offers

well over a thousand cbo
displayed in a very easy-to-

ftand fashion. I'm surp
sen done befb
il didn't get into this column or any

Ihaf I can recall.
I was reviewing from the first
■ - - • i . and the upgrade w i .
available by the time yo.u read this.
This should have a guitar-chord

,-. ill MIDI-connec.t with a

rnent via any interface

for your own composi*'

Cot: 128

and Is available for the reasonable
sum of Efi.99 (including postage

tcjtonRd.Tilgate,
Grawte] AH1Q5AN.

ricks wilt be reJeasi
eating MIDI programs,
including MIDI delay, i -
e - look for reviews in
■

BATTERING RAM

There must be many readers who
bought the Ram Music I
and are now eagerly aw
latest software from RanVF;

here ain't gonna be any. It
jee profits in
selling hardware and not in the

ade software: I've also have
heard mutterings that RanVs OTT

Music
Machine (double-page fun-colour
ads in tots of music magazines)

ns. legs and other
appendages,
But feliow Tech Nichesan (what
lonNGoodw
S already
itioned the Ram Users o
and magazine run by AI Straker.

This sanctioned by

Ram )y too happy to

see you, the user, develop your
own software. I reckon rt's Ram's
loss, not y&

@ club's first fruits are now
available; they were on show at the
ZX Microfair in August, and full
reviews from me will follow. But .as
a taster try these two
One is an eight-track MID 1
ind step-time recorder k
Ramtrack, £15 pouno:

me):
i fir Is a rather smart £9
Sampfe Editor fry-
Software, which goes r

~:nthesamv>.,- }
"18 Music Machir;.
enables you to loop and hold
samples with pretty well glitch-
free results.
There are also rumours of 16-
■eeorders and conversion
routines to make software
intended for

on the Music M-a;. I vice

versa. You can get more Info from

m Users" AI Straker by
phoning g 787.

Okay, that about wraps it up -
next month we'll gat round to
synchrontcrty, and full reviews of
rs mentioned above. In
the meantime u send your end
to me at the usual CRASH PO Box
f0ad< : i is printed on

©veM-y other page as if i-;

► Contemplating the essential harmony of the universe with Tocrrtricks's

Gswqpactai/tf

A Diminished Scale

CRASH October 1 987 117

CHUNiCHEUTEi

MIRAC

FORTRAt world's .first

cornp

Soft'v

firm has also released a Br

Standard v

•

widely used

■raring and ci
studi" rdemie

seems a

. «ta to checkout these

is can

language of The processor i ;

' beat

lands-onexj
up

il time
on pve

of my

OOimpl -iCO'jrseWi

Video- Genie- a 48K
using

For too

i-queof the

, ■ n

-r Of

After.;

the Spectru
ageing Pascal 41
competitor of AWi

MIRA FORTRAN

; - an was a

looker: 'swas

118 CRASH October 1987

SIMON N GOODWIN
tests Pascal and
Fortran 77S
compilers from Mira
Software, fakes a
first look at Romantic
Robot's +3
Multiface, and
controls that model
train - finally

early
34 -and
some o\ the peculiarities of

ave been enshrined in

, ■

followed Fortran
following and wh
several versions - like the
Spectrum 128, but more slowly.
Even BASIC was first developed in
to make <t easie
Iran. The name stands

mS theme i

Nowa in is outdated,

■y standard
sdvanced

•ialiy

ing.
^ Mira Fortran is based an Fortran

1 can also

compile many programs written
as
ir.66and Fortran IV.

THE PACKAGE

a 16-page

matrix on manual,

and a cassette wo

'iree
demonstration prograi
The'' ado

e program, ft covers
Mira
Tat
break- ng in a few

i have
. : times bef'
yd'Jra :, going on.

If you' I- : -)sed

a good -gerKaufr-,

3ook, ISBN 0-

LAYOUT

nled,
pwgr ' ot typed directly

into the £ i read from

ied wrth hod

require a punched-card-re-
indicate the required comma
an doesn't
but, like alt Fortran sys

lid enter your pr:

y laid
-
There are threetypes of li n s
l Comment
EMs in BASIC) start with a G
. i D.
They are used during testing
you can te I. Her to ignore

tor a finished program, or
pile them, for a test run. Thus
you can keep teal

am text, and choose v. I

iude them just before

Anytl I .j normal

ars must be spaces or
You can put a line number
here if v -n a BASIC

program, but lines don't have
have numbers - and the numbers

ive to be in the correct
order, though obvious.!
they are!
The

■•" j is usually blank, but a
: is a
continuation of the previous
Fortran is unusually fua
■ ' ythmg else gives an error.
vidua! Fortran lines have a
fixed r,. ngthofSO

characters, and you can only put
one statemei ■

: ignore the last
•ngthem as
a comment, but Mira's program
Programs
tal letters, apart
from comments and messages;
Spaces are ignored.

THE EDITOR -
RUDIMENTARY?

The'M/a Fortran editor loads from

n about. 90 seconds, and
works much like the ZX BASIC
editor. Ypu type in lint
bycharaci- A the

32-cplumn screen; earlier entries
splayed at the top. Long lines
wrap around at the edge of I
display. You can move left and
right in the usus rreet

mistakes in the line you're working

When you; ERthe

syntax of the fine is checked. If all
iswell/Wi'raForfr
next fine; otherwise you

mistake at the place
shown before yoi

You si ;g lines by

pressing the is gives you

access to a set of single-letter
commands to edit lines or scan up
and down the program, line by line
or In eight-line steps - mucl
BASIC, Fortran text can be loaded ,
merged and saved on cassette.
The H key calls up a list of
ands,

You can list the file to stream 3,
usually a ZX printer or Centronics
Interface, but you must print the
whole tot There's a block delete

r>d to get rid of*
lines, but no way to copy a b

■ut derating the original. This
edrtor

few people will prefer a card
punch.

COMMANDS

Mira Fortran recoanises rrtd
Fortran 77; the biggest rest
is probably the absence of
COMPLEX and DOUBLE data
types, Bc-c ,i use the

Spectrum's default precision of
about nine digits, arsare

led to the range -32768 to
<W. Logical (true or false)
values are packs d )i e bits

to save spat

Memory permitting, you oan
declare arrays of any number of
dimensions. Variable space can
be shared, using COMMON and
EQUIVALENCE'. DATA statements
let you preset variable values.

Maths functions include
logarithms., type conversions,
trigonometric and hyperbolic
functions, things like MOO (to find
the remainder aft and a

Job lot of M IN and MAX functions
to pick out the biggest or smallest
of several v^
All the usual numer i .
Hansons and logical
operators are allowed, but Mira
Fortrgn lacks routines to handle
characters- you can ! t slice strings
-; themtogt- '■
Program control facilities are
very rudimentary. The DO li i
simitar to FOR. .NEXT In ZX BASIC,
and there are three kinds of IF test.
including Fortran 77's mult.i
IF..THEN..ELSE.
Functions and subroutines can
i and called with any
type I vr. Bullt-m

subroutines mimic BASICS ARC,
BEEP, CIRCLE, DRAW and PLOT
commands, but you must write
your own POINT function if you
t. The orrty way to control
Kites fiKe INK, PAPER, OVER
and so

appropriate control codes: H
isn't mentioned m the manual,

wiled the
way m its range of ouiput-
formatting facilrtres, and Mira
Fortran reflects (his. The sy
horrible, but that's Fortran;

ire pretty-
good, and there's a nonstandard
PRINT command which you can

/ou don 'J want to bother with
the belfs and whistles of Fortran's
WRITE. Mira ..oses

some minor restrictions on
FORMAT statements, but all but
the most obscure programs
should compile without trouble.

You can't use cassette data
fifes. I read and write

disk and microdrive files from a
Fortran program, The trick is to
open the files from BASIC, and
then use the appropriate stream
number from inside the Fonr
program. You can read or vwi
files from the start, but

■ss to move back
and forth,

END can be used to check for
the end of a file in a READ
statement, but the check has an
unusual syntax and only works on
files which are read a lineal a time,

CHnNICHEnTECHnNICHEJTECHDNIC

COMPILING
FORTRAN

When your program Is complete
the X key starts the compiler
Before, it generate
Mira Fortran scans the whole
program at a rate of about 1 6 lines
a second, looking for mistakes that
could not be spotted on a line-by-
ftne basis, such as missing l
or mistyped names. If a mistake is
found one of 15 rather generaf
error messages appears; for
instance, an absent END
produces n message

'Wrong statement oro

When an jean found

the appropriate H ne is marked
atlas' i Hand you

.own back:. Iftor,

When all th >- ( - been fixed

i iputer beeps and the
• • shows a mess of dots and
lines. This appears because the
compiler uses screen memory to

Jstails of the names in I
program. Jn this way, ir i
n you can comp
i sea.
Then- dthe

d part of the system, which
actually performs the - m
code translation. The translator
takes load, and then it

scans through the program at
about 30 lines a second,

nen it
■ '•splays a list of
>s: the code address,
length, place to CLEAR before
running and, for no app >
reason, the add r.---.
program's COMMON storage
area.

As soon as you press a key-by
accident or deliberately - the
isahd the
machine rag g the code,

at the top of memory.

This two-step approach allows
you to compile programs erf

il hundred lines on a small
machine, but it makes Mira F
a drag to use; you must reload the

-.itor every time
you compile a program. This Is not
too bad if yen iskor

microdrive. especially «t you save
the program and editor togei
with a 'mag»c button ' utility, but it

v frustrating on a cassette
system.

PERFORMANCE

Compiled Fortran runs without the
compiler loaded. You st
programs * I $R G3500.

They are always a long,

becau^"

outmes at the top of
memory, The code IS not
particularly concise - the

Erograms I tried used about 50
ytes per i

Integer arithmetic proved to be
>erween30andl00?'!
quicker than BA^. ;arin

speed to Mcoder and Sofiak's IS
opilers. You can
only break into compiled Fori
when SCROLL"-' is displayed.
Floating-point number-

! nog was not very fast. One
demonstrai searched

for prime number :hem

I a rate of about two a second.
The method proved to be v 3

but the compiled code
wasu twice as fast as

equivalent ZX BASIC, or a fifth
quicker than BASIC complied with
Mender 3.

Mir a Fortran can ' t always d
errors in FORMAT statemer.

jiled
u '. a squeak, but locked up
the machine when I ran it Ai

use there
was no hint of the position of the
error, Inlheeod I J<ep: loading and
recompiling the program with
extra PRINT statement-
zeroed in on the fa

THE VERDICT-
USEFUL BUT
LIMITED

Mira has produced a real Fortran
compi. Spectrum,

Unfortunately Mira Fortran ia

ly. it lacks some
futures you'd expec i
larger system - like a run -time
debugger and tinker - but it is still

ful package for compiling
fairly small, independent Fortran
programs.

MIRA PASCAL

Mira Pascal 1 has many of the

i m of Mira Fortran and it too
costs £1 5, but it has been
produced more recently and has
fewer rough edges. It's a
complete, modem version of
Pascal. Mira Software says :■
the microdrive version comp

Level 1 of British Standard
6192.

Like the Fortran compiler, Mira
Pasca/is supplied on casst
The.A4 instruction manual is- only
12 pages long but it is better
organised and easier to use then
,-ou already
knowtbe standard and can puzzle

rather technical error
reports vou should not need any
other if i otherwise you'll

need 6 1 e manual

reobrr in at deals

ically with British Stand

The tape has three different

• is of the eon

• .Tii lows about
Of memory for progra n .

drive version is a little larger,
and both leave about 1 800 bytes
unused at the top of memory in
case you need tc sr-

driver there. Then there's a

tensed tape version which
allows an extra 3K of program. It
loads at the very top of memory,

: help page and 1 .'.
numbers rather than text to report
errors.

Pascal i$ a very
language from Fortran- 1 1
invented in the late Sixties by a
Swiss computing professor,

is Wirth (and named after the

oentury French

Pascal); it
fesigned both to be easy to
compile and to learn, and to
encourage

I : . jred - programming.. This is
takes
programs easy to read and to

There are usually two stages in
the development of a program.

First you mak nyou

make i iscal forces you to

think before you start coding: it
reduces the amount of time you
spend debugging, bee
Pascal effectively you have to
make plans first."

This is good d>scipHne for
prole?- mars,'

because it is almost impossible to
write big programs

Unle?.:- ,! ,!|y

as a bad
name with some hackers because
at suitable for bodging smaH
programs rogeir

PASCAL EDITOR

-ascai uses an editor si
to the one supplied with the

p compiler, with e
eomn more besides.

Now you can move directly to the
start or end of the text, duplicate
as well as -i. and

toad and save files on microdrive
■

. S tO

•■■•$, but it should
say D.)

- You can compile text files
created by a word-processing
system such as TaswordS. but,
sadly, you > .
into the word processor.

All the usual features of Pas
are included: Mira Pascal works
wrtti characters, Boolean (true or
false) values, integers -.'-32787,
nine-d>g«t floating-point nun :
and subranges, packed into single
bytes when possible.

Oatastru e strong

point of Pascal, and Mira

informant
ant records, pointers
and sets of any size. DISPOS E can
only reclaim the space used by the

cent dynamic variable
allocated, so programs that make
heavy use of pointers may run out
of memory after a while.

Besides stands i s and

grocedures Mira Pascal supports
EEP and the di awing commands
and maths functions of ZX BASIC

ode
but does not return a value, i
again POINT is missing, and INK
and OVER must be set by printing
control codes.

Characters do not appear by
default on the screen when they
are read from the
want lobe able - 1 3dft

ifl the
procedure EDITOR before using
READ or READLN, (This worked
well for me except when I typed a
blank i ■ jpsequont input

was invisii-i:

aPas#a7cajvusefrt&s
opened from BASIC, as oan Mira

It also supports
temporary files which

atfcally disappear when you
leave the block of code
created them. Unlike Mira Fortran,
the Pascal compiler lets you
RESET and REWRITE files, and
check EOF as normal.

The microdrive version or I
Posca/ automatically saves your
program wr--:' ..tthe

compiler and reloads il when you
run the editor. Apart from this, the
compi oteps, like

MiraF.

number after a compilation - the
address to CLEAR -just before
the c6m.piied.code. This num
also printed • have a

printer connected.

GOOD
PERFORMANCE

Whe-, s compiler, the

speed and size of

Pasc. ;fid to be s

to that of Mira Fortran. Iffleg

handling was a ga

but floating-point maths was only

two or three times faster than ZX

BASIC, The compiler worked very

quickly, each step processtng

between 20 and 30 lines per

second.

Mira Pascal comes with three
demonstration programs. 1>
searches for all the pnrne numbers
between 1 and 32767, using a
sieve method much more efficient
than the ce -, 3 Fortran

demo. If took 40 seconds to run,
and I was able to- rot 5

seconds by mak
Changs

The second demo compu
and displays three-dimensional

hs, clipped to let a box on the
screen. It worked quickly and wall.

Last on the tape is a well-written
spelling-checker. This comes with

■■•ary of just 800 words,
expandable^ 2.000. but it ia
illustration of the way A
Pascal can be used to develop
sophisticated progi

is a valuable
addition to the Spect il
programmer's armoury, especially
if you< tin working

order! It should give Ht Soft
Pascal son.' ^mpetition,

Mira Software Is at 24 Home
Close, Ktbwortb, Leicestershire
LE8 0TJ.

CORRECTION

-SCREENS
HANDLING

THERE WAS a serious subediting
mistake in last month's article
headed POP-UP SCREEN, at the
end of the first column on page 86.
'The number of the page moved"
Should have read The number of
pages moved' ... I

CRASH October 1987 11

*

:HEUTECHUNICHEn

► Doing the • 3 a favour: Romantic Robots Muttlface Three

NEW HOPE FOR THE +3

THE FUTURE of the Spectrum +3 Is
looking brighter now that Romantic Robot
has produced the Muftrface Three, with
which you can transfer cassette
programs for the Spectrum + and 128
onto disk.

The £44.95 Muttlface Three is, In
effect. 3 set of utility programs that you
can run any time without disturbing
loaded programs, The standard program
{in ROM) lets you save screens - or the
entreprogram memory - to disk or tape,

You can also type in POKEs to change
the operation of games.

And a Multjface contains RAM as well
as ROM, so you can load all sorts of
utilities into the space - the Gamester
mhnita-lives trick reviewed In Issue 41,
for Instance, or Genie, a friendly
machine-code dlsassembter,

These utilities are the first in a growing
market which Is increasing the flexibility
of the 'custom' Spectrum. Uke IBM PC-
users, Spectrum-owners are teaming the
value of a sidekick.

The Multiface Three also includes two
new routines to print screens at any time
through the + 3's printer port.

To make space for new files, you can
suspend programs and format a disk at

riny nme, or look through the disk
directory and erase unwanted files. Disk
files are usually saved in a compressed
form and automatically expanded upon
reloading, which should help the
Multiface Three tit more than one game
on a disk. (Each Amstrad disk holds just
1 73K, but most current 1 28 games leave
lots of memory unused,}

Packing the entire memory Into a
single code fife also helps the Multiface
Three save room on the disk and increase
loading speed.

FMrnantjc Robot has (tone tatsftail a
big favour by producing an add-on that
makes the +3 worth considering. But
even if the + 3 comes down to £1 99, wtth
the Multiface Three at £45 you 'if be well-
advised to check out other disk systems
with 'magic buttons", such as the Swift
Disc {reviewed here last month) and the
Disciple (which Franco Frey reviewed in
Issue 3d),

And there are a few problems lurking:
the Muttlface Three may not operate with
software produced specifically for the
+ 3. for instance, Still, the prototype
tested works pretty well - and there'll be
a more detailed report soon,

WE'RE GETTING THERE

ADAM SHEPPARD wants to
possible to cent
model tram from a Spectru n ,
- but it's not easy, and you'll need
a good knowledge of
programming and digital
nfcs.

First, you must fiend an input/
output port for the Spectrum, A
Centronics parallel printer port
might be good enough, if you can
discover the port addresses and
wiring assignments - otherwise
you'll need a purpose-designed
interface tor experimenters.

Maplin (tel: Southend-On-Sea
(0702) 55291 1) has a Sped: I
I/O Controller on page 264 of its
current catalogue. You 1 )! also need
the parallel-port kit on the same
page, so the whole' lot will e
C35-40. Electronic And Computer
Workshop (tel; Chelmsford (0245)
262149) sells a similar system. I
1 haven't used either product, so I
can't vouch for them.

You could design and build your
own controller for about £1G r but
you'd need to know ail about

-
adV rou don't know

roughly how to do this alrear.v

120 CRASH October 1987

advise you not to try uriless you
can find someone more
knowledgeable to help you.

A control I* you set and

test digital signals outside the

V'ou must write
appropriate software, and build
ofectronics to interface the
:> I ler to sensors and power
5 for the railway.
Babini has just published a slim
£2.95 pape r ■'< stable

with a clear and
sensible discussion of the
problems involved. Electronic

fs For The? Control of Model
Railways, ISBN 0-85934-154-2, is
written fay the prolific R A Penfokt
The book assumes you're wiring
: up to the user port of a BBC
: but a Spectrum port works
in much the same way.

if you've got a Tech Tip that
deserves a wider airing - or a
technical query - please write in
with thedetails. The address is 1 as
ever:

Simon N Goodwin, Teoh
Tips, CRASH, PO Box 10*
Ludlow, Shropshire SY8

we

m

■

Choose from
awesome array
weapons and prepare
lor the battle of a

SfeHme!

SPECIAL FEATURSS

Multidirectional scrolling

*
3 massive levels
•
Amazing 'ExoTrome' feature

Ace McCJoud, Jake

Rockwell and Max Ray

j are THE CENTURIONS!

^ I Stop the evil Doc Terror

jfc in his desperate bid to

V- destroy (he World! Guide

the Centurions through

find all six parts of the
" ter key before if s too

^^^^^^H

CS4 128 cass£9.99 C64 128 disk £12.99 AMSTRAD cass
£9.99 AMSTRAD disk D 4, 99 SPECTRUM £8.99

RAPID FIRE

Producer: Mastertronic
Retail price: £2,99
Authors: Icon Design

The crime of the month, if not
the century, is under way -
_ criminals have made their
headquarters in a deserted
warehouse and filled it with
computer equipment, and they're
ready to paralyse the electronic
security systems of four victim
banks.

There's only one solution, so
your potice superiors have
ordered you to destroy the
warehouse and all the equipment
ft contains.

To do this, four plasma
computers must be deactivated.
The active (red) rotating plasma
vent in each computer is its
Achilles' heel , and should be taken
out by a well-directed shot.

But the computers are
protected by a swarm of
desperate criminals who just don't
like an undercover cop that much.
You carry a gun for protection
against these evil rapscallions and
their grenades and missiles (but be
careful - while you're busily

gathering points, the gun can
overheat).

After taking out the plasma
computers, you can enter the

master level of the warehouse
hideout, thus setting off a chain
reaction In the central power
electrode and foiling the bank
robbers ' plans for good.

r CRmctsM~~k

• "I'm sick of all these 'shoot

Rapkt Fire -more a kind of feeble Wast

every person in sight r games -
they were only appealing for a
short while, and now they re v&y
tedious and boring affairs. Rapid
Fire is the epitome of everything
bad about this genre. It has
absolutely no content, and it
seems pointless going around
blasting every single thing that
moves. I'm not a pacifist, but all
this violence makes me sick. "
PAUL 27%

• ■ Rapid Fire is a highly boring,
unaddictive shoot-'em-up. The
graphics look like they were
made in ten minutes on a Friday
afternoon (some of the enemies'
weapons are like black lemons,
and your own machine gun is a

FOOTBALL DIRECTOR

Producer: D & H Games
Retail price: £6,95
Authors: John De Salts
and Tony Huggard

Wheel and deal in the
football world, matching
the cut and thrust on the
pitch with the Machiavellian
intrigues that lurk in the
boardrooms of big-time sport.

As a team manager, you appoint
coaches, physiotherapists and
scouts, make bids for stars and
self declining players to raise
money.

Matches are automatically
played between your team and the
other sides in your league. After fu II
time a final score is shown,
complete with scoring players and
score times. The results of other
matches in your league are also
shown, and with each completed
set of fixtures the ever-changing
league table showing your
position can be called up.

You can also get an update on
your squad, telling you the number
of goals it's scored and conceded,
the number of games it's played,
and whether rt's carrying any
injuries,

1 22 CRASH October 1 987

Just as important, of course, is
an accurate statement of your
financial condition. If your bank
balance isn't enough to support ail
your deals, you can arrange loans,
overdrafts and mortgages, or sell
shares in your club to cover your
financial shortfall.

Remember the bread-and-
butter expenses that are incurred
every week . such as wage brl Is and
general running costs. Regular
income to offset these includes
gate money, interest payments
from the bank and TV broadcast
fees.

There's an active transfer
market in which you can boost a
flagging team by buying the best
players - or raise money by selling
them. Bids can fail, though,
leaving you intensely disappointed
when you're unable to persuade
your favoured player to come to
youinstead of plumping for the
exerting football adventure that is
Grimsby Town.

Out of all your transfer dealings
the government takes a third of the
fee, and it takes 15% of any
gambling wins you make.

At the end of the season, if not
before, your financial decisions
can break or make the club you
run. So poverty or riches, glory or
bust may await you just round the
comer . . .

• " Football Director tries to
dominate the Spectrum football
market and bury the rival Football

Managertor good. It fails dismally.
Football D/rector-hotds all the
features {not attractions) of the old
favourite - slow responses, no
graphics, glaring colour. And the
inlay is extremely uninformative.
Football Directors a slow and
poor imitation of a very overrated
predecessor. The high price is ten
times more surprising than the
game. "

PAUL 11%

• " Football Director is the worst
game I've seen for months, and

► All the world's a football pitch in D&H Games's sports-management

simulation

E E

rfftirgif^RF]

2 +

Baa maomm

■

simple stick) and the animation
is pathetic. The only decent
thing about Rapid Fife is the
loading screen, so there's
nothing worth buying here. "
HICK 40%

• " This is the kind of primitive
junk I'd have expected from a
budget label a couple of years ago.
The gameplay is extremely limited,
so there's virtually no payability.
And the graphics are horribly
fUckery, with unconvincing
animation of the main character -
though the characters are nicely
detailed, I doubt Rapid Fire will
\( appeal to many: it certainly left me
cold. "
BE* 30%

COMMENTS

l

Joysticks: Kempston, Sinclair
Graphics: poor and badfy-defined
Sound; squidgy explosions
General rating: a very inferior
shoot-'em-up with little payability

Presentation
Graphics
PlayabiJity
Addictive qualities
OVERALL

it's worse than Football Manager.
The colour is unattractive, and
the black-on-whfte text could
become hard on the eyes — if
anyone has the patience/lack of
intelligence required to play
Football Director for more than
half an hour. *
MKE 8%

• Get ready, all you intellectuals
out them -you'll need an O level in
Football Studies just to load this
up! Like the other football
management games. Football
Director is text-only and very
boring. You can choose what to
call the players and tf?e teams, but
that doesn't brighten up this drab
simulation. "
NICK 19%

COMMENTS

Joysticks: none

Graphics: text-only game; ugly

colour

Sound: minimal FX

General rating: a poor and

expensive substitute for

Addlctive's Football

Manager (well-received in CRASH

Issue Four)

Presentation
Playabiiity
Addictive qualities
OVERALL

SAMURAI TRILOGY

Producer; Gremlin
Graphics

Retail price: £7.95
Authors: Gremlin
Graphics in -ho use

You are one of a select band
of fighting warriors
attempting to become a
Samurai War Lord in this martial-
arts simulation (see Run It Again
this issue for all the others!).

To prove you worthy of the title,
your fighting and mental skills
must be tested in three Oriental
disciplines: karate, kendo (a form
of fencing) and samurai. In each of
these techniques you need to
overcome an acknowledged
master - such as the terrifying Ta
Ung, who catches cobras and
makes stew from their remains to
increase his fitness.

Each opponent has a favourite
means of attack; he might rely
upon strength, speed or skill, and
you must respond with the best
defensive strategy. For instance,
your speed might neutralize his
strength, or your skill might help
you beat a very fast opponent. The
choice is yours. You can also
choose the skill level of your
opponent; the better he is, the
more points you'll earn if you
emerge the victor.

Preparation is essential before
every contest, to improve your
abilities through circuit and weight
training, running, isometrics,
breathing, brick-breaking,

sparring and meditation.

After each" phase of combat,
attack and defence tactics must
be chosen by allocating five points
among four key attributes: skill,
stamina, strength and speed. An
unsuccessful defence strategy or
wasteful attacking can diminish
you in ail four areas, but wise
fighting and sound training can
earn you extra attack strength
from the watching Supreme
Master Chu Yu.

After the first rounds of karate
and kendo you may meditate or
change tactics - but during
samurai the action is continuous.

► The way of the rude hand signals: Samurai Trilogy

and you must defeat four
opponents as you fight to the
death to become a Samurai War
Lord.

CRITICISM

1

• " Gremlin's first martial-arts
simulations had a strong
atmosphere, usually created by
lifelike graphics and effective
sound. But both are absent from
this latest (and hopefully last, if
they keep coming like this . . . )
wireframe slant-eyed game. The
graphical presentation is hopeless
- it s obvious that more time has
been spent on the character set

than on designing the game. The
moves are quite easy to carry out,
but they alf look the same. It's all a
bit old hat. M
PAUL 41%

A " Samurai Trilogy is simply
three Way Of The Exploding Fist-
type games on one tape. The
graphics aren't anything to
shout about, and when your
warrior jumps over the
background his head changes
colour! This is just another run-
of-the-mill martial-arts game. "
NKK 65%

# " This is one of the worst beat-
'em-ups ardund. The graphics are
poor, and mere's not much
playabiiity or addhtivity - Samurai
Trilogy seems like nothing more
than a program put together
hastily to satisfy orders. The
character set is nice, though. "
MKE 41%

COMMENTS

j

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston,

Sinclair

Graphics: well-defined

characters against a simple

background

Sound: no tune, a few spot FX

Options: playable in four

languages; opponent's skill

definable; joystick control only (no

keys)

General rating: a lacklustre

martial -arts simulation

OVERALL

CRASH October 1987 123

Producer: Mind Games
Retail price: £7.95
Authors: Binary Design

Y'ou know what it's like -
faced with a tense situation,
your mind goes blank, you
can't think of anything, and you
feel like the thickest person. Oh
sorry, you're like that all the time?
Well, Professor Storm isn't, but
he's desperate to collect all his
intellectual thoughts and put them
firmly under control.

And to do that he must travel
through his own mind, which is
made up of interlocking cogs;
Storm can travel either clockwise
or anticlockwise on their rims,
Travelling with a cog's motiorr
increases the prof's speed, while
movement against it slows him. If
Storm just stops walking, he
moves at the same speed as the
rim.

All this rotating is to help our
eggheaded hero reconstruct the
scientific formulae he once knew;
when he completes one revolution
on a wheel rim Storm picks up part

of a formula, but only by collecting
all the parts in the correct order
can he move to the next level and
the next piece of disassembled
knowledge. (The required forumla
is displayed at the beginning of
each level.)

Storm's otherwise routine task
is hindered by stray, distracting
thoughts. Some journey
predictably on the cogwheel's
rims, but others switch randomly
from rim to nm, or even home in on
the poor befuddled man. If these
touch the dear professor they can
reduce him to a moron - so keep a
check on Storm's IQ. If it falls to
zero, he loses one of his five
scholarly lives.

Some wheels have fond
memories or abstract thoughts at
the centre, and they

/k

J MARK L

" After a few games I started
to enjoy swinging from cog
to cog and saving the poor
old professor from a very
embarrassing situation.
Graphically irr 2 is nothing
startling, but it's competent
and quite playable. "

53%

f'i

V*

-^SSftT 8 *

► That's you on the centre cog> looking for the vital formula in jrt SQUARED

J PAUL

" This latest Mind Games extravaganza certainty taxes the old
grey matter as well as requiring some lightning reflexes. »r has
all the appeal of Think!. The concept is amazingly simple and
straightforward, but each level is ridden with a fiendishly
constructed array of wheels. And there are some vicious stray
thoughts, making planning essential. It might be a bit expensive
- but there are mounds of addtctivity in irr 2 , and it's definitely
worth fiddling with. "

77%

temporarily paralyse him Storm or
take down his intelligence.

But to help him in his rotating
task the professor can collect
other objects from the centres of
the cogs: a book raises his
flagging IQ, a calculator speeds up
his movement on a rim, a hammer
lets him swat a stray thought, and
if the prof finds a trash can he can
dump in parts of a formula in the
incorrect order.

J HICK

" If you're trying to forget all
that maths homework you
haven't done, avoid this one!
The central character looks
like a cross between Bobby
Bearing and a baked bean
and the scrolling is terrible.
The idea is simple* and so are
the graphics - but their pres-
entation and the different
formulae to work on make it
highly addictive, pr is a bril-
liant little game. "

K3^

ICOMMEHTSL

Joysticks: none
Graphics: simple but effective
Sound: tune and spot FX
Options: definable keys
General rating; an enjoyable
and fast-moving puzzle game

Presentation
Graphics
Playability
Addictive qualities
OVERALL

TM

ACTIVISION

ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE

TM &©1987 Bo Hy Midway MFG.CO.
All rights reserved, Aetlvision inc. Authorised User,

B'A

Producer: Firebird Silver
Retail price: £1,99
Author: Timotfiy CIoss

//[ /fter his bouncing conquest
(jrU of the evil Terry Ball in Fire-

■■ birtfs CRASH Smash
/, Ball (Issue 39) r the bulbous I, Ball
is sent down deep mines to investi-
gate the history of the Balls (a race
of multicoloured, wefl, balls),

I, Bail jumps and bounces
through this subterranean maze of
antiejufty. The flame-thrower he
carries must stand him in good
stead against the hordes of rotat-

11 L Ball 2 is the most frus-
trating game I've ever
played - the screen layout
gives you minimum man-
oeuvrability J But the spec-
ial FX are fantastic, with
loads of speech, crumbling
rooks, and masses of nas-
ties. Colour is used
extremely well, too, and the
graphics are superbly well-
defined. Considering that
the idea of I. Bali 2 is so sim-
ple it's amazingly addictive
and compellinq. "

ing blocks, spinning squares and
descending cubes that seek to do
our rotund hero down; I, Ball can
earn clusters of points by destroy-
ing these geometrical muggers
before they take his five lives.

There are 50 screens through
which I, Ball must work his way -
by findl ng a key In each screen and
getting to the exit with it, within a
time limit. And as he progresses
I, Ball should gather valuable his-
toric artefacts by bundling his
globular form Into them.

" I. Ball 2 is a very playable
leap-around -and- blast -
everything-in sight col-
lect-'em-up. Graphically
it's great, with a cheerful-
looking little bouncing ball
sproinging around nicely-
drawn backdrops. There
are plenty of nasties trying
to stop him - and for many
games they will succeed
admirably ..."

87%

But each mine ha3 its own
peculiarities and characteristics,
which I, Ball must discover and

use to his advantage , . .

i, Bail can pick up extra Jives,
weapons and so on as he moves
through this strange world; points'
are awarded for such kleptomania.
Power Stones have the strangest
of properties - they can boost
power, slow opponents in a power
warp, or increase a leap.

" I. Bail 2 is a really excel-
lent game. The graphics are
smooth and fast, though
they're not very exciting,
and the gameplay is chal-
lenging and fun. The sound
is superb: the title tune isn't
exactly Mozart, but the in-
game effects and the
speech are really good,
ranking next to the original
I, Ball. This rs a great game -
and it's budget tool "

93%

When this roly-poly explorer has

advanced through five mines, he is
treated to the sight of a priceless
object, made in the youth of his
race. And when I, Ball has
gathered ten such objects his task
is complete and he can once more
be feted as a hero.

COMMENTS ,

Joysticks

Graphics; well-drawn, well-

anir:>.

Sound: ma ; leech

but weak tune

General rating; a very suc-

cessfulfollQw-up to I. Ball

Presentation 86%

Graphics

Payability 69%

Addictive qualities 89%
OVERALL 90%

UNLOCK THE THRILLS « MYSTERIES OF.

An arcade strategy game with enough
addictive qualities to turn even the toughest
cof rt-op critic Into an arcade junky". C at VG

I

^

age of mystery and intrigue, a place in * hfch the fabled

easure of KIngSotomon shone brightly with its glorious wealth.

Where amongst the network of mysterious rooms lies the next key

that will bring you nearer to these fabulous riches. Where amongst

the stone pillars and hidden dangers He mythical creatures that can

perpetuate your life long enough to readHkir ultimate goal.

"I T I

C&M64/128

9,99 Dkiu 14.99
ATARI ST f 1 9.99

AMSTRAD
<.m.E 9.99 oa.1 14.99
SPECTRUM 48/1 28 K f8.99 M «** smokhmm tMsm*o version

U.S. Gold Ltd, t UnJts 2/3 Hofford Way, Hofford, Birmingham U 7AX. Tel: 02 f 356 3388

i?2kiM

DEATH WISH 3

Producer: Gremlin
Graphics
Retail price: £7.95
Authors: Gremlin
Graphics in-house

II n Death Wish he killed a few
punks, in Death tVfcfr2hekilted
a few more ... but in this
Death Wish 3 film licence, street
vigifante Paul Kersey is out to
slaughter the world. Well, perhaps
not the world, but certainly a let of
the bums and street vermin who
skulk in the streets of New York.

Kersey patrols a 3-D
construction of the Big Apple's
streets, Using compass and map,
he can pinpoint the punks he's
searching for - and find the
weapons he needs to wipe them
out.

With a Magnum, a purnp-action

seriously Kersey is injured.

It may be a jungle out there, but
our Charles Branson lookaJike can
find a brief respite by hiding in run-
down tenement rooms. Once
inside he can sneak a peek
through windows, and fire shots
into that mad, mad world out there.
Plugging a creep from this position
earns you higher points - but be
on guard for surprise attacks from
behind.

► Paul Kersey turns his back while some little or granny gets duffed - this is
no way to carry out Death Wish 3

. a machine gun and a
rocket launcher clanking in his
bulging pockets, our hero begins
his cleanup campaign, using each
weapon till its magazine is empty.
When he's finally weaponless,
Kersey gives a resigned shrug and
must go in search of protection.

But he isn't alone in his fight
against the forces of evil -the boys
in blue are on his side, supplying
Information on where riots are
breaking out in the violent city
centre.

As Kersey, you earn points for
each piece of New York low life
rubbed out. But take care - these
gang warriors sure ain't boy
scouts, and they're armed with
guns and clubs.

And though our vigilante has a
heavy bulletproof vest chafing at
his chest, it can only take somuch.
Wear and tear on this protective
undergarment is shown by an
icon, and a bar indicates how

1 28 CRASH October 1 987

Points are lost if you mow down
one of New York's hetpiess law-
abiding inhabitants, and the cops
are bound to get a little irritated if
Kersey bumps oft too many of their
men.

And just so too many corpses
don't lie rotting on the pavement,
medics dash on to drag the odd
cadaver away - and Kersey
certainly keeps them busy.

CRITICISM

i

% " The graphics are good, wfth
brilliant characters, but the
gameplay and the way Bronson
moves are poor, it seems the
object is to destroy any moving
object - and killing someone with
a rocket launcher is a mite
barbaric, reducing them to just a
pile of dust! There are some neat

touches, such as the ladies of the
night walking about, tempting you,
and the way you can shoot out of
windows. Death Wish 3 is
graphically attractive, but it won't
appeal for long - especially as you
can't turn off the irritating tune. "
NICK S4%

• "There's been too much
attention paid to the sicker parts
of Death Wish 3 - the gore left by
a bazooka blast, the realistic
twitching of the characters
when they're hit by a volley of
shots - at the expense of the
game. Navigating the angular
Streets and the mazel ike interior
of the buildings isn't easy, even
after an awful lot of practice, and
this might put off beginners. And
getting duffed up is pretty
tedious; if more than one baddie
has a go it can take a long time
and a huge amount of energy to
get away, which often costs you
the game, I can't recommend
Death Wish 3. "

BEN 34%

• "Death Wish 3 is dull. The
mindless carnage might appeal to

real s&ctists - but it gets tedious.
The title tune isn't bad, but though
the graphics and characters are

guite clear, they're unattractive.
esplte its image, this can't be
recommended even to fans of the
Death Wish films. "
MKE «%

COMMENTS

i

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston,

•Sinclair

Graphics: well-defined, with

colourful backgrounds -colliding

characters are messy, though

Sound: a fair tune, not much

atmosphere

General rating: the attractive

appearance doesn't compensate

for unexciting gameplay

HEIST 201

Producer: Firebird (Silver)

Retail price: £1.99
Author: Lee Do wthwaite

It is the year 2012, Earth has
been living on credit for some
time row. and the few people
who stil I u se ' real money r put it into
massive bank organisations, the
biggest of which rs the LD,
International United BanK in
Switzerland.

The bank is so big that even its
employees know only a tiny
fraction of the vast complex. Day
and night it is patrolled by troops
of cyber guards that wilf destroy
anyone they find lingering
suspiciously around the bank.

You piay a poor computer-
systems engineer who has a craze
about money and will do anything
to get it - even hack your way into
the central bank computer and
transfer all the money from other
accounts into your own.

On each tevei of Heist 2012, you
must find a key. This opens a safe,
from which you collect letters that
buiid up a password. When you

have all the letters, find your way
to the computer room and press
HACK. You must then type the
password and press ENTER. If the
password is accepted, you'll gain
access to the next level.

Type 'exit' and press ENTER,
and walk over to the elevator to
leave the computer room.
Efevators, represented by shafts
of light, are dotted around the
playing area to make your life
easier ; to start an elevator just wa I k
into it and to get out on the next
level just walk out left or right.

But watch out - if you touch a
cyber guard, you lose strength and
risk death.

Password-passing, code-cracking and bank-breaking in Heist 201 2

CRITICISM

l

• " Heist 201 2 is the worst game
I've yet reviewed at CRASH - its
just a bad imitation of Jet Set Witty,
The opening music is flapdoodle
(Nick Roberts Daft Dictionary), and
there are the usual unimaginative
monsters like blinking eyes,
moving splodges and big lumps of

something. The gameplay isn't

very exciting, either . . . "

NICK io%

• " The graphics take us back
to the innovative and original
days of Jet Set Willy and
Technician Ted, but sadly that's
where the similarities finish.
Heist 2012 is boring and devoid
of character, like the graphical
person you control. I just hope
people don't take this as a
typical Firebird budget

1t%

blunder releasing this. "

15%

PAUL

• " Aeons after most people am
sick of platform games, outcomes
this rubbish - f was terminally
bored after only a few games. A
horribly deformed sprite totters
around a crudely-drawn screen,
and there's a weak and grating
'tune'. Firebird has made a big

COMMENTS

1

Joysticks: Cursor. Kempston,

Sinclair

Graphics: small, uninteresting

sprites on a plain background

Sound: does for the ears what the

graphics do for the eyes - with an

awfuf tune

Options: definable keys

General rating: a very poor

platform game with particularly

missable graphics

Presentation

Graphics 13%

Piayability

Addictive qualities 1 1 %

OVERALL 12%

WHY RUN WITH THE PACK,

WHEN YOU CAN

FOLLOW THE LEADER...?

CRASH October 1987 129

^W«g

r

MASK I

Producer; Gremlin
Graphics

Retail price: £7.95
Authors. Gremlin in-house

If Matt Trakker had known he
was going to have to enter a
time vortex to rescue his fellow
MASK agents, he wouldn't have
enjoyed his breakfast cornflakes
quite so much.

Created by the odious
organisation VENOM, the vortex
has delrvered Trakker's
colleagues to four other times -
Boulder Hill, Pre-H istoric days, the
Far Future and VENOM Base - in
this licence featuring characters
from the MASK TV cartoon series
and Kenner Parker toy range.

There are two agents awaiting
rescue in each time, save in the
first where Trakker rescues just
one agent and his own MASK -
which gives him superpowers.

To begin the rescue operation,
Trakker must enter the vortex in
his flying car Thunderhawk,
already racing against time. First
he needs to put together eight
keys. Each has been split into four
parts, and must be pieced
together on an assembly screen;
there are useless bits of key lying
around to confuse Trakker,
though, and only six parts can be
carried at a time.

Our hero needs the keys to
activate two scanners which will

Heading down toward a heavily-guarded building in MASK I

locate his missing agents.
Following the scanners' electronic
directions, Trakker can pick up his
fellows by driving

Thuncferhawkmto any doorways
that might imprison them. A MASK
agent will leap for freedom into the
flying car - and then the search for
his own MASK can begin.

Trakker's task is not made
easier by obstacles that block
ThunderhawKs path, so he
collects bombs to remove them -
a quick getaway is essential,

though, because the destructive
devices can wipe out Trakker as
well! Up to three bombs can be
carried at a time.

In each time, different perils are
encountered: falling boufders in
Boulder Hill, pterodactyls in the
Pre-Historic period, UFOs in the
Far Future, and at VENOM Base
erupting snakes and lumbering
firing tanks. If they're not
destroyed by Thundertiawk's
weaponry {for points as well as
satisfaction), these can damage

J MARK L

u Graphically MASK I is very good, with a horde of nasty VENOM
baddies chasing our hapless hero around a solid, colourful
screen. Sound, though, consists of the usual bangs and crashes,
and control is quite tiddly - but the game's addictiveness keeps
you playing. "

87%

► The key-assembly screen where you . . . well, assemble the key, really

I RICKY I

" Games based on popular
toys have never really
worked before -

Transformers and Challenge
Of The Gobots were letdowns
- but MASK I looks like it'll
put all that right with a very
involved puzzle/shoot- 'em-
up game, it's well-designed,
well-executed and

immensely playable, and has
enough action to prevent it
from becoming too much of
a cerebral exercise.
Controlling Thunderhawk
may be frustrating at first,
but when the inertia effect
has been overcome it's
positively useful (especially
when dodging the falling
rocks on Boulder Hill!}. MASK
J is a game to spend time over
and work at - definitely no
one-minute wonder. *'

m

the vehicle. Damage is shown on a
indicator display, and repair kits
must be collected when two units
of damage have been sustained.

After the agents on a level have
been rescued, they can be
returned to the vortex, and Trakker
can make his way to the next of the
unknown times.

Finally VENOM Base can be
destroyed in a series of deadly
stages - and then Trakker's
ultimate goal is achieved, and he
can go home for another soothing
bowl of cornflakes.

PAUL

1

u MASK i certainly has the
graphical appeal of a
successful game, but it's too
tedious to keep you
interested - most of the time
is spent trying gat hold of a
very uncontrollable car. The
layered graphics give as
strong a feeling of 3-D as
possible, but the tack of
colour detracts from the
atmosphere of the different
eras. Though MASK I stands
out from the others of its
genre, mainly because of the
graphics, it lacks the edge of

70%

_J COMMENTS I ,

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempslon,

Sinclair

Graphics: well-defined;

monochromatic playing area

Sound: 1 28 tune and

additional FX

General rating: a wortt

licence with lots of depth and

Payability

Presentation C-^'

Graphics j

Payability

Addictive qualities 76%

OVERALL 81%

1 30 CRASH October 1 987

^/^-/L/V..

-t'u/^j

Producer: CRL
Retail price: £8.95
Authors: The Zen Room

Realising that the sun can be
used to obtain something
other than a tan, scientists
construct 16 solar grids in space.
These orbit all the suns of the
universe, efficiently creating
energy crystals.

However, the craft that once
collected this raw product can no
longer do so because of the
accumulation of unstable energy
pulses. The Sun Star supply craft
has therefore been built.

Four white disruptor puises
exist on the gridwork of each solar
panel. Firing at these with laser
bolts makes them jump to another
part of the grid, leaving behind a
green energy crystal. But if this
crystal isn't quickly collected by
sliding the Sun Star over it, it loses
energy and burns out all the
crystals already collected.

When ten crystals have been
gathered from one a you move to
the next grid by passing through
the revolving warp gate and firing

a laser bolt into the heart of an
orange hyperwarp cell.

The Sun Stats energy, reduced
by laser firing, high-speed travel
and space obstructions such as
red energy pulses, can be
supplemented a limited number of
times by entering the hyperwarp
cell. Each time, one of the
collected crystals is lost, though.

The Sun Star's position is
pinpointed by a global scanner
and a short-range viewer identifies
nearby targets. The main 3-D
screen shows the grid with the
positions of the coloured celis and
the dangerous red energy pulses,
and the position of the last
disruptor pulse fired is given at the
head of the screen.

► Weird 3-D action in CRL's Sun Star

• " Sun Star was probably meant
to be one of those games which
people play because it's wild and
wacky - like Jeff Minter's work.
BufSun Star fails miserably
because of dull and inefficient

gameplay and difficult screen

layout. "

RICKY 31%

• " The 3-D grid idea isnt
exactly new - it*s been used
repeatedly In games such as
Glass (Quicksilva 1935) and
more recently Piexar (reviewed
this issue). And because you
have to keep your eyes on the
scanners at the bottom of the
screen, you never look at the
grid itself. The idea of chasing
white blobs around the grid and
shooting hell out of them is so
unappealing that it won't hold
anybody's attention for long. "
MICK 4t%

• " The big 3-D scrolling area at
the top of the screen turns out to
be completely useless - the only
useful thing, in fact, is the very
basic scanner lower down. Sun

Star has very little content and is

simply lots of trekking around a
black screen: the graphics create
absolutely no atmosphere and the
sound is a disgrace. Sun Star is a
disappointment. "'
PAUL 20%

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston,
Sinclair

Graphics: terrible colour clash on
the 3-D grid - and generally poor
Sound: weak spot EX
General rating: art imaginative
idea for a shoot- 'em-up, but
uninteresting gameplay and
graphics

Presentation 41%

Graphics

Playabitity

Addictive qualities

OVERALL 30%

THE WORLD'S No 1 HOME

COMPUTER SOFTWARE HOUSE

ACTIVISION

ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE

Don't miss us at the
Personal Computer World Show. Stand No's 1317 & 1417

The Activision Group of Companies incorporates Acti vision, Electric Dreams, System 3, Gamestar, Personal

Choice, Infocom and Sierra On Line.

CRASH October 1 987 1 31

B*U*B*B*L*E B*0*B*B*L*E

iff I ubble-blowing Bron-

[Ut tosauri? Yep, Taito's crazy
*■■ arcade game featuring the
f urwovlng Bub arid Bob has finally
made rt onto the Spectrum. The
troublesome two are off to rescue
their lady friends, who are lost
within a string of prehistoric caves .
Each cave consists of a screen
ruled with platforms, and Bub and
Bob progress from one cave to the
next when the entire screen has
been cleared of the killer cave-
dwellers.

Though Bubble Bobbls can be
played by just one person it is ide-
ally for two simultaneous players;
when twc-pf aver mode is selected
Bub and Bob appear onscreen
and shortly after that the hostile
cave-dwellers emerge and rush
around the network of platforms.
Bub and Bob's only defence
against the dwellers is the bubbles
which the two sauri spit A bubble

travels forward a short distance
before floating upward, and any
creature caught in its horizontal
path becomes trapped for a
while . . ,

Now the fun begins - if the
bronto jumps up and pops the
bubble with his tough horny head,
the creature within bounces
around the screen, stunned, and
turns into a banana which can be
collected for an extra score. How-
ever, if a bubble with a creature in
Isn't burst quickly the prisoner
escapes and rushes around the
screen in a strop looking for the
responsible brontosaurus.

CRITICISM

" Having never actually
played the arcade version,
though I've seen It, I'm
totally Intrigued by Bubble
Bobble - beautifully simple
and well-executed, it plays
superbly, looks good and
has that one-more-go app-
eal that'lf have you playing
till the brontosauri come
home. The continuous tune
on the 12a version matches
the frantic action of the
game and certainly keeps
the adrenaline rushing. I
reckon Bubble Bobble will
be one of my all-time fav-
ourites, and it's definitely
one of the best arcade con-
versions this year. "
MCKY > 93%

Another hazard which appears
if a screen isn't cleared quickly
enough is the dreaded Baron won
Blubba, an indestructible horror
who'll track down the heroic dinos
and give them his fatal touch if ail
the other creatures aren't
destroyed very rapidly.

CRITICISM

Bioop, bloop, bubble bob-
ble - Bubble Bobbie is like
overdoi ng it with the bubble
bath! If s just popping with
payability and addictrve-
ness. The cute little charac-
ters move very well, the
platforms are very colour-
ful and there's no clash visi-
ble anywhere. The bonuses
are fantastic, and two-
player mode gives that
extra boost of excitement if
you're evenly matched.
Just one final thing to SBv:
WATCH OUT FOR THE
GIANT PEACH f "

86%

" Bubble Bobble is so much
fun! The graphics are cute,
and though it's quite easy
to play ifs remarkably
addictive. Having seen the
other versions,, l was con-
vinced that the Spectrum
game was going to be a let-
down - but far from ft. Bub-
ble Bobble is excellent
pretty, enjoyable, addictive,
simple, exemplary and a
s tro ngly -recommended
buy. "
WHtCE 93%

Throughout a level* bubbles
float up from the bottom of the
screen. Some are water-filled and
when they're burst they cause a
mirtiflood which pours down the
screen, sweeping away any crea-
ture that stands in its path. Other
bubbles contain letters, and an
extra life is awarded to the lucky
pair if they can form the word ' E X-
TEND', Occasionally saurus
treats appear, either giving extra
points or endowing the prehistoric
pair with special powers,

As the dinosaurs progress
through the levels, all manner of
creatures are encountered. Early
levels are inhabited by square-
headed morons, but as you prog-
ress the locals get more vicious
and start lobbing things back to
counteract the bubbles, On finally
reaching Cave 100, the last one,
you come face to face with heap
big chief cave-dweller who's big-
ger, nastier and generally more
unpleasant than anything encoun-
tered before. Bubbles at the ready,
boys . . ,

Joysticks: Cursor,
Kernpston.. Si
Graphics: plain back-
rjs but supercute
characters

Sound: marvellous 128K
tune, good spot FX
Options; two slmultar iqi
players possible - even
recommended - and defina-
ble Keys

Genera} rating: the most
playable arcade conversion
thteyear

Presentation 86%

Graphics 87%

Playabifity 91 %

Addictive qualities 89%
OVERALL 90%

/ ffifeggj

■

SOLOMON'S KEY

Producer: US Gold
Retail price; £7.95
Authors: Probe Software

Deep in King Solomon's
mines lies a vast fortune,
there for the taking - for
anyone foolhardy or greedy
enough to enter the subterranean
world.

To reach the unimaginable
wealth in this conversion of a coin-
op original, you must make it alive
through a series of rooms
inhabited by menacing creatures
like fat-tummied parrots, Michael
Jackson llamas, jellyfish and
fireball -firing heads. Not even the
hardiest of souls can withstand
their withering touch, and you
have only six fragile lives . , . but
the unpleasant creatures can be
disposed of with the fireballs you
find in this underworld.

Each room contains coloured
blocks arranged in patterns across
the screen; these can be used as
stepping stones to a key that

J MIKE L

" Solomon's Key has quite a
lot of payability, and though
the first screen is very easy
the second is much more
difficult and needs thought.
With its small characters and
bright graphics Solomons
Key looks like a budget game
and probably should have
been one - still T it's fun. "

69%

J NICK L

" King Solomon must have
been a pretty wealthy bloke
judging by all the treasure
dotted around here! Anybody
remember Mastertronlc's
Rockman? Well, Solomon's
Key is very similar but a bit
better presented. The
graphics are well-defined,
the animation is good and
there's plenty of payability.
The idea of dodging nasties
and collecting keys may not
seem too exciting but I
assure you you'll be addicted
in a second. "

83%

unlocks an exit door. Finding a
successful route isn't easy, but
large open spaces in rooms may
be crossed by laying further
blocks to create a staircase. Take
care, however - the inhabitants of
the dark mines can destroy the
block you're standing on. sending

► Looking out for Michael Jackson in this latest H Rider Haggard licence
(shurely shorn mistake? - Ed Dir)

J ben L

" Despite its simplistic plot and gameplay, Solomon's Key has
turned out very well indeed. The graphics are good, though they
do get a bit cluttered when there's a lot going on. And though I
doubt I'll be playing it in a few months, the game as a whole is
appealing and farriy addictive. **

S3%

you tumbling down,

You too can destroy as well as
construct, * evaporating blue
blocks that obstruct a horizontal
pathway.

In each underground room,
objects - handbells, angels, acorn
crowns - can be coltected to
accumulate points. A time bonus
can be added to this total - but if
you overstay your welcome and
can't reach the treasure before the
deadline, then time really has
waited for no man and money no
longer concerns your corpse,

UC0MMENT$1_^

Joysticks: Cursor, Kernpston,
Sinclair

Graphics: small and not very
W Sound: reasonable
spot FX and decent opening
tune

Options; definable
General rating: a simple but
enjoyable arcade puzzle game

CRASH October 1 987 1 33

XECUTOR

Producer: ACE
Retail price; £7.99
Authors: Cybadyne

Faced with the unenviable
prospect of a Sunday
afternoon sitting in front of
the TV, you decide to take to the
space waves and blast a few alien
bad boys into oblivion.

As you venture through a
verticaily-scrol ling corridor, waves

J MIKE L

tor's colourful

graphics make It an
attractive game to play, but
it's a on* annoying to 'crash'
on touching the corner of e
character set on a curved
piece of scenery. The
scrolling Is smooth, and in
two-player mode the
gameplay is a lot more fun
and doesn't slow down;
otherwise,, Xecutor fs just a
standard shoot-'em-up with
neat graphics. "

J PAUL L

" OK, so if a Zynaps turned
through 90 degrees . . . but
at feast it's a credible clone
with a few attractive
variations. For instance, the
two-player option is a clever
add-on in which you can not
only help but also hinder the
other player, and this adds a
new dimension to the
Nemesis concept. The pick-
up technique also requires
some skill. Forget the
monochromatic Slap Fight
and MoonstriKe - what you've
got here is a playable shoot-
'em-up with a superb
splattering of colour that
doesn't spoil the game one
Iota. Once you've completed
Zynaps turn your hand to
Xecutor, and you'll find the
same appeal with more
challenge. "

97%

of attacking alien craft appear
wielding deadly laser blasters.

So it's ' do as you would be done
by' as you try to take out these

JbenL

" Xecutor is one of the best sboot-'envups I've seen in ages. It's
got great graphics with brilliant scrolling colour scenery and
detailed superbaddies. Some of the add-on weapons are very
original - the split firing and the pod are realty devastating.
Xecutor's only drawback is that It* s very difficult, difficult to the
point of being infuriating after en hour or so stuck on the first
level! "

► Hordes of marauding foes and other alien cliches . . ,

► Shooting 'em up starts with the weapon option shown In that box on the riaht
of the screen

Prepare to meet your doom, you hulking great mother ship!

entities wrfh a series of forward -
firing weapons. Equipped at first
with just a low-tevel gun, you can
enhance your arsenaJ by
destroying certain alien craft; this

reveals weapons that can either be
collected or themselves destroyed
to take you on to a more powerful
system.

At the end* of each corridor
section is a large ominous craft:
accurate fire knocks out vital
components, but the ship is then
transformed into an even more
formidable opponent ready for
blasting. A measly three lives, fast
manoeuvring and expert fighting
are the only things that can get you
home tonight . . ,

1 COMMENTS L

Joysticks: Cursor, Kempston,

Sinclair

Graphics; excellent, colourful

and detailed with smo.

scrolling

Options: two-player mode,

definable keys

General rating: a superb

shoot- f em- up - a must for

anyone who liked Zynaps -

getting The Edge's new ACE

label off to a fiery start

Presentation

Graphics

PlayabHrty

Addictive qualities

OVERALL

14%

134 CRASH October 1987

v.-1°t»»' >e >

BEN ■ Ttiose stinkin' subversives have
firtaity pressed their littte red button; all
civilisation is only four minutes away from
total annihilation, and tie whole world
sends out a prayer - but unfortunately
God is still on his hols.

There Is a chance, though, ttat good
ole Ronnie wasn't just kiddin' about his
nifty Star Wars projecl . . .

At the controls of a prototype SOI
satellite, your mission, should you decide
to fork out the credits, is to protect your
country from the enemy's first strike.

The satellite Is equipped with a laser
which can be aimed with a trackball -

controlled cursor and can itself be moved
by a separate joystick,

The game js split Into two stages: tirsl
comes the Offensive stage. Everything
out the kitchen sink is up In the skies and
out to get your satellite, if is up to you to
blast the enemy's floating bases and
planet-based. Sites with your lasers and
to dodue their homing projectiles and
bolts of energy. If one of them gets too
close it's goodbye to one of your three
lives.

n you're on the bait you might pick up

an equipment pod: these speed up your

mate the- explosions from your

lasers bigger, and give you extra cursors

to improve your fire power.

While you're doing this the nukes are
passing underneath In a lower ori
must at all costs blast these; otherwise
there'll be a rather embarrassing hole In
your home country and a loss of power to
ihe satellite.

When the first wave of missiles has
heen dealt with, a space shuttle swallows
up the satellite and moves it on to the die
Defensive stage of BDI.

Compared with the previous section
this is a doddle - and a rather unoriginal
one at that, There's more than a
splashing of Missile Command here, The
bombs drop from ihe heavens like Ihe
th underbolts of Zeus. Wipe 'em all out by
moving downscreen and letting the
cursor do all toe work - it's a piece of
cake, really.

i o begin with. SOI really phased me -
It's so much hassle. I couldn't cope with
avoiding the hazards and frantically
shooting things at the same time, After a
few quid had drooped down the slot,
things began to come together - but
things also got tedious.
The second stage is a pleasure to play :
mply a brilliantly Improved and
polished version of the old classic Mlssife
Command. It's a shame that you have to
go through ihe bqringly long first stage to

R-Type or APB. The graphics are a little
blurred and unclear, but the sound and
music leave nothing to be desired, except
perhaps a little extra volume!

BATLANTIS

Konami

1

KM ■ Batlantis is another shoot-'em-
up which bears more than a passing
resemblance to another own-op - Taito's
Space invaders (remember?] - but
revamped, redesigned and regurgitated
lo 1 Ws high standards.

The acton takes place on and beyond
ihe ramparts of a castle which is being
invaded by the forces of evil: ranks of
demons, spined devils, winged beasts
and the like, moving down the screen
toward Ihe castle wall.

A tone archer stands against these
monstrous attackers. Running to left or
right he can lire a brace of arrows at a
tune towards his advancing toes. As toe
rows of attackers reach the bottom
wall they disappear from sight for a
moment, only to reappear at the lop and
pause, ready to pounce on the archer.

At the end of each rank or level of
horrors comes a frenzied afflack from a
giant meanle. These giants come in many
different forms, from an axe-throwing
maniac to a huge gory head that spits
flames. I was surprised to find that
Mantis is one of the least-played
newies around, it's very appealing and
instanUy playable - though after my last
few quid had disappeared down the
horrible hole 1 did wish rd spent them on

fR-TYPE

JREM Corporation

BE* ■ R-Type is in the genre of the
frenetic snoot-'enn-ups Nemesis and
Salamander by Konami. The plot is also
of the same unfathomable complexity -
destroy the slabbrsfi Bydo empire with
your powerful spacecraft

Trie screen scrolls horizontally from
right ta left tti rough eight distinct levels'
at the end of each level there is a rather
gruesome monster, often occupying
more than halt the screen. Blast mi
you'll be whisketi off to the next
landscape.

Hostile craft, robots and creatures
attack from all sides: many of these
Bydoian forces are well-armoured so ft
win often take more than just a few blasts
from your R-9 ship to destroy

To increase the power of the ship's
onboard laser, hold the fire button down,
let 5a and a more deadly beam is
released.

As the game progresses., a distinctive
legged sphere appears on screen,
Shooting this results in an add-on floating
into view. This can be left to follow you
around vaguely, or it can be guided
toward R-9 and eventually connected to
either end of the ship by pressing the
ATTACH button.

The add-on can be shot off or
jettisoned across the screen by pressing
the ATTACH button again (useful for
clearing out infested areas and going
round comers). Shooting trie sphere

TOMY ■ Forget me rest, R-Type has to
be the best game of its kind around, The
graphics are brilliant, full of the sort of
mings you find at the bottom of packets
of stale crisps and the liquorice all-sorts
that nobody wants, The way the
backgrounds fade in and out is ju :
and despite the huge number of
independent characters that can be
onscreen at any one time the game speed
never slows down. There's an excellent
range of pick-up weapons that help make
life easier and lots of strategy involved
later on,

It-Type is urtra-addfctive, the sort of
game you'd happily sell your granny to
get change for, It makes Nemesis look
like Space invaders and is certain to burn
a big hole in your pocket hut you'll love
every minute of it,

► R-9 bites the dust- who wttl save us
now from the evil Bydo Empire in

R-Type?

► More fighting in #- Type

again and collecting the icon that it leaves
behind will Increase the add-on's fire
power or give R-9 extra speed, more
missiles or a shield.

ft-Type is undoubtedly the most
impressive coin-op of the tot, and one of
the hardest to get to play - because
there's almost always a crowd round the
cabinet! Graphically it's stunning: some
of the later, more organic, palpitating
levels are truly revolting. As for the game
itself, it is simply second to none: difficult
enough but sufficiently addictive to keep
you piling in the credits.

► R-Type, not a game to be played before dinner

CAPTAIN SILVER

Data East Corporation

KM ■ Treasure-hunting Is the order of
the day in this swperb mystical adventure
game. Armed with only a trusty sword,
the boyish hero Captain Silver slashes his
way through a multitude ot meanies. The
final goal, a cache of treasure, ties far
across the seven seas on one of the many
islands he encounters.

Extra weapons can be collected on the
way. Swords may be picked up or
purchased from a shop; magical powers
appear as icons, such as shoes to make
you run faster and jump higher, or they
are obtained by touching the magic fairy
who occasionally flits her way across the
screen.

136 CRASH October 1987

The enemies range from manually,
grinning Cheshire cats to drunken pirates
and ghoulish skeletons, and there's a
different tactic for defeating each type.

The levels, ranging trom a small town
(at the start) to a complex desert Island,
are joined together by a small stretch of
sea, crossed In a jolly Irtife boat . . .

Don't be put off by the run-of-the-mill
Data East blurry and undefined look- the
gameplay is sound so there's a lot of fun
to be had from Captain Stiver. The only
drawbacks are that at first it's very
difficult and, unusuaHy for a coin-op, the
controls take a bit of getting used to . . .

•m f^rn -

DOUBLE
DRAGON

■EN ■ it's the same old story: the gjri
gets beaten up by a gang of no-good
desperadoes and the guy goes chasing
after them to free her, battling against
overwhelming odds. And all because the
lady krves hunky guys and horrible

► Whip in hand, the kinky star of Double Dragon awaits a second attack

HI 2GGC-C 2F

TIME 52 1NSEFT

MOTO.

APB

Atari

i

KEN ■ The APB cabinet Is distinctive, to
say the least Like the early racing games
it is equipped with a steering wheel and
an accelerator pedal: there are also a
couple of buttons on the dashboard to
operate the car's gun and siren. (As wefl
as being functional, sounding trie siren
sets off some funky flashing lights on top
of the cabinet*)

The screen shows a bird J s-eye view of
a busy freeway overrun by traffic
offenders: It is highway cop Bob's job to
apprehend these petty criminals.

Each day Officer Bob, green as a
gherkin and after swift promotion, is
given a daily quote of arrests or tickets
which m ust be fulfilled within a given time
limit At the end of the day, if all the work
has been done, one of the game's many
beautifully-animated sequences follows:
the police chief, cigar in mouth, lakes

Bob into his office, hands out the
congrats, mumbles something about
Mom's apple pie and pats him on the
back, if, on the other hand, the quota isn't
completed the chief will do unspeakable
leaving the luckless cop unable to
carry on with the game.

A quick blast of the sirens should have
most traffic violators quaking in ttieir
seats - the fear of American law and all
that. Some are a little more reluctant to
poll over, but a tew more siren blasts or
even a subtle nudge with the front end Of
the car should put the paint across, Care
must be taken, though, when nudging
other cars - or other animate objects for
that matter - as each crash or
unnecessary collision notches up a
demerit: too many g1 these in a day and
Bob will be slung out of the force.

As the game progresses the qualagets
bigger and the time ttmrtsiiarter. Valuable
extra lime can be gained in the form of
doughwts, obtained either from
doughnut shops or at the side of tie road ,
jflfUBfy Bob has to catch real
villains as well as road hogs. These

p- Oopsf There goes another car, and another demerit to boot, in APS

uri.t.i-

Aantrft*-

aayu OttV:

crooks are a bit more difficult to deal with
- they have to be run off the road by skill
and brute force rather than simply pulled
over. Some have speedier and better-
equipped cars than our long-armed hero.
"Not fair!' I hear you cry. WeH, there Is a
speed shop where Bob can collect better
bits for his car; these include powerful
brakes, better acceleration, guns and
radar.

Once apprehended, no self-respecting
law-breaker ts going to confess to his
crimes Just like that, so Bob has got to
beat a confession out of the rotter back at
base.

There's a handy add-a-coin feature
and a couple of secret level-advance
modes

APS is refreshingly different from the
usual mass of bash-Qr-blast-'ern-ups.
Sound, graphics and gamepJay make tor
one ot the most addictive and fun-to-ptey
arcade games around.

Many thanks to Toby Rothwell for
playing APB (undercover) tor us.

TONY ■ Hill street Blues was never like
this - and more's the pity. APB& one of
the few games that is actually more fun
when you can'fptey it very well; when
Officer Bob is fired, the screen shows a
poor cop being handcuffed by his mates
and thrown into a trash cart. And the
police chief also shows his anger by

breathing fire all over you!

APBtun and there's enough going on
the keep you commlng back for more.

3: Car 54, where are you?

STREET
FIGHTER

TWIT ■ The Stmt FigMer machine we
tested was still m the prototype stage, but
here's a preview, Perhaps there'll be a
full review when H hits the arcades
nationwide later this year.
. There is nothing new about a game
which involves two kung-fu experts
beating the living daylights out ot each
other against some elegant backdrop
under the watchful eye of a wise-iooWng
Chinaman. Street Fighter, however,
breathes new life into this fast-fading
scenario

The cabinet Is huge - the same size as
the one used in the four-player version of
Gauntlet- and the screen ts around twice
the normal sL?e so the onscreen

chocolates . . .

Double Dragon is a typical beat-'em-
up, putting the usual set of punches,
kicks and throws, and some original
(albeit bekw-me-belt) moves like efbow-
In-lhe-eye and knee-in-the-groln at your
disposal,

One good touch: two can play at once,
taking control of the boyfriend and his
mate In their quest to win back the heart
of the abducted girl (preferably with the
rest of the body attached).

V/our opponents usually have to be
downed several times before they give
up and disappear. You'll come across a
few super baddies who make a theatrical
entrance (smashing through Ihe nearesi
wall and so on); these boys are a bit
and some of them carry baseball bats.
knives or even sticks of dyrai

Still, a good couple of punches soon
disarms an opponent and you can pick
up Ins weapon to use it yourself. Olher
objects found in Ihe playing area, such as
can also be thrown at opponents
in the bitter fighting.

As you move through the levels you
enter the enemy base where the girl is
being held: on the final screen jig
face as many as six opponents at a time.

TONY ■ The just has to be the best
game oi its kind around it's action all the
way. and thoroughly addictive - the kind
of game you'd happily seli your granny to
get change for. The backgrounds are

good and most of them are Interactive.
You can climb walls, throw rocks or even
shove the bad guysdowntheodd pothole,
it's depraved, sick, bloodthirsty,
violent -and I love it!

► No more ruffians to duff up In Double Dfagon ,
take a breather, to climb a fence?

it must be time to relax, to

characters are aisa pretty big (nearly 10
inches high).

Each player has a joystick to control
his character's movements, but there are
also two beat-'em-up pads for punching
and kicking. The harder you hit the pads
the harder your character hits his
opponent [and the more your hands

hurt!),

The action is very fast and brilliantly
realistic; the backgrounds are superb, the
sound effects ace and the synthesized
voice , . , abysmal. Well, you can't have
everything.

Hitbng the pads and moving the
joystick In a certain sequence w
you access to secret techniques which
devastate your opponent with ease. Bui
after the first round you bathe with tour
more deadly and, usually, armed
opponents before moving on to do furflrer
battle in another country.

TONY ■ As soon as you start playing this
game you experince a strong feeling of
d$$ vu. As the scrolling text tells you that
you're the only surviving warnor from a
race of thousands and that you must
rescue your comarades and defeat the
evil barbaric ones you meet along the
way, you can't help feeling youVe heard
it all before.

But Black Tiger is surprisingly good.
You face the usual assortment oi
. ions and wizards that you'd
expect to meet down any dungeon, and
on each levei you have to rescue a set
numbe; of colleagues who have been
turned io stone, when you rescue mem.
they thanK you and offer you gifts of
money, armour, weapons or magic
potions. Tne money comes in useful for
buying everything else and you'll need
more armour and weapons as you get
furrner into the game.

With skeletons and undead beings
■■! , Black Tiger
might remind you of Ghosts ft Goblins -
but there Is far more strategy Involved,

CRASH October 1 987 1 37

MERELY MANCRAM-

.e-xX&ty 1

*-.

IT HAS surprised me In the past
thai a good film doesn't spin off
more than one game, since there
are often many subplots to use,
but at least Activision is having a
second go at Aliens. The film came
out Intime forms last PCtVShow,
so that the Activision stand could
have a rare preview of some
scenes to hype the coming
Electric Dreams game of the
same name. It arrived at Christmas
and received 84% in the February
CRASH {Issue o

Now watch out for US Aliens.
The adventure is spirt into six
subgames - a compendium, no
less! To kick off you are piloting ? n e
landing craft down onto the
surface of planet LV-426, now
inhabited by a bunch of amoral
aliens who kill and cocoon anyone

vised enough to get within
their armour-plated clutches.

After landing you must return
your fellow marines to the tank.
The killing begins in the third part,
as you fend off aliens with a flame-
thrower. Then it's a quick race
through the maze of air vents to
Section Five where Newt, the
colony's only human survivor, has
to be found. The finale opens with
a battle with the angry Queen alien,
and the final curtain comes down
when you eject hef into space - if
you manage to.

The elonedrome hit3 again - it's
that interesting syndrome
whereby software houses
concentrate on the same format aJl
at the same time, ft looks like
Electric Dreams s Super
Sprint and budget house Code
Masters' s Grand Prix Simulator
are to be released at about the
same time. Super Sprint is the
official version of the coin-op road
racer featuring eight separate
tracks with jump ramps, gates,
short cuts and banked corners.
Super springing press ambassador
Andrew Wright, speaking for
Electric Oreams. says "You could
be forgiven For thinking Super
Sprint is just a high-class racing
game." Could I be forgiven.
Andrew? isn't it? Oh well.

So much for crunchy aliens,
hurtling vehicles and biorhythmic
balls, now on to something
wholesome -the arcades! Ocean
has one or two licenses kicking
neefs on its superportable
as machines, and one of them
oughtto have been featured on our
sample* this issue — Gryzor.
Unfortunately Ocean's Gary
Bracey couldn't persuade their
programmers to get anything
suitable ready in time. Gryzor is
from Konami —a hectic shoot- em-
up starring you as a one-man

rf you've seen the machine,
you'll know what the graphics are
like - and let's face it, Ocean will

1 38 CRASH October 1 987

have a hard time putting those
onto the Spectrum, but they're
j , it's spirt into three sections,
offering very different
screens, but all featuring hectic
battling against enemy soldiers
out to prevent you from arriving
wherever it is you're going -
sounds tike a day at CRASH
Towers. Also from Ocean . . . look
out for Navy Moves (sequel to
Army Moves) and another great
coin-op in Rastan Saga.

Mosaic has changed its diarist
lately, unless Adrian Mole's grown
up ferociously faBt - now you can
teaf through the annals of
ministerial life in Ves, Prime
Minister, licensed from the Beeb
Beeb Ceeb, Parliamentary
shenanigans are at the heart of this
adventure as recentry-re-elected
Prime M Inister James Hacker sets
sail on his powerful career.
Unfortunately, being a nice man,
he has little idea of how to run the
country, A relief, then, to see the
astute political mind of Cabinet
Secretary Sir Humphrey Appfeby
is still on the team - but it's worth
watching his loyalty as he's
excellent at saving his own bacon
rather than curing yours.

The only trustworthy person is
your Private Secretary, Bernard
Woliey (unless you count your very
own Derek Brewster who will bring
the complete political story as
soon as we can get a mofe other
than. Adrian to leak it).

M^

\

► 'Aha you fiendish us Alienl 1's goto' Wast yous brains out! Hsi'

Hewson's Steve Turner has
been out of the limelight for a tew
months since Benarama (apart
from supplying music for the C64
version of Anarchy, a budget
release on Hewson's new Hack- It

► It's that Grand Prix simulator

Super Splint in from the arcades

► KLP2 returns In his new adventure Magnetron, with no Jerky scrolling this
time round

label), but he's about to return with
a foliow-up to Quazatron, starring
KPL2 again, called Magnetron, KP
(to be familiar . . . J is off on a new
adventure set on the space
platforms ofQusriech in a last

*— J

► Of course, anything you say, in fact: fes, Prime Minister

SCORE Q0 2S1&Q

*GRYZQR*s

As the programmer puts it, 'the scrally Mt in Giyior

► I, Bail H, you Jane

desperate attempt to blow up or
neutralise the reactors which act
as a lite-support system for a
marauding alien race (isn 'f H
astonishing how often aliens
maraud?). Magnetron should be
hitting your screens in dark
November.

Birmingham's US Gold has
jhed fts new label with the
hyperactivename of GO!, and GO!
is go with with a line-up of
Sidearrrts, Spaed Humbler, Bionic
Commandos, Captain America,
Brave Starr and Lazer Tag games
-a modest Httle launch.

Sidearms, a wild 'n' wacky
shoot-'em-up set in space, is
converted from the Capcom

original, Speed Rumbler is a car
game which finds you bringing
peace and elegant charm to the
world by shooting enemies and
saving families - a sort of family
entertainment, in fact.

GO! has announced a tie
with Mattel which includes a game
Jicansed from Matters toy, Brave
Starr. Don't groan, ft actually looks
quite fun. It's about a cowboy of
the future who lacks a hoss (poor
lad) and has to make do with a jet-
powered saddle instead. Should
be ready for review next
month . - .

GO! is also handling a
distribution for Mattel's Nintendo
system and the new craze in
taser-tag light pistols - so if you
want information on it write to the
usual US Gold address, which can
be found on their adverts.

But the GOIers aren't having it
afttheirown waywhanit comesto
toy licences, because Action
Force is go, and Virgin Games is
go too -but not.till late Octob eh
when Richard Branson's crowd
releases the arcade sftoot-'em -up
adventure inspired by the well-
known Hasbro toys. Action Force
Is currentfy being developed by
the infamous Gang Of Five and
Hffures ten levels of play with
eight screens each. The front-end
presentation is great with spinning
logos and all kinds of twiddly bits.
Virgin person Patricia Mitchell
says Action Force looks like being

the btg Christmas arcade game,
Hmmm. Don't they aJI?

Another, and definitely not
Virgin, lady arrived on our
doorstep the other day. She was
Martech's Nsdja Singh, who
popped in to tell us that Martech
has signed up Nigel Manse i
their new racing-car game, I guess
that means he's endorsing the
product rather than actually
programming the game.

Nadja. who admits to preferring
sheep to smelly combustion
engines, says the game features
the latest in car-design
technology, but if you can't be
bothered with digital controls and
the like there's a perfect
opportu nrty to simply blast around
the track at excessive speeds
without a care for fuel
consumption, tyre wear or the
racing line. Nigel Manseli's Grand
Prix will be out at the end of
November on most popular
formats (and available at all good
car-spares shops).

THE HARDEST BLOW

FREDDY HARDEST

Imagine £7.95

End October

After Army Moves and Game Over
comes Freddy Hardest from
Spanish software house Dinamic
(this time accompanied by an
advertisement which does not
feature exposed mammaries!).

Freddy, the cheapest playboy in
the known universe, has done it
again. His heightened sense of
direction has dumped him on an
inhospitable planet some way off
in the galaxy's eastern spiral arm.
Like many computer game heroes
before him {remember Jetman in
Jetpac?), Freddy tramps around in
search of bits and pieces to repair
his space craft. And, as so many
have also discovered to their
undying horror, the planet's
inhabitants, marauding naturally,
come thick and fast across the

horizontally scrolling landscape to
Freddy his ha/dest time yet.

Luckily Freddy's laser pistol
proves to be adequate when it
comes to terminating aliens with
extreme prejudice, although It's of
lrtt(e use for getting round the
craters filled with bubbling fava
with which the planet's surface is
riddled. They are, of course, lethal
to our hero, as are the more
advanced aliens which he meets
further along in the game. Similar
to other Dinamic offerings, Freddy
Hardest consists of two levels.
Sorry, but my preview copy
doesn't contain any of the second
level, so you'll just have to wait for
the review to find out what that's
all about.

OU CAN BE
A BERK II

Through The Trap Door

Piranha £8.95 End October

'Greetings great and wobbly
viewers to more of my glorious
adventures ..." Berk, the
blundering big hfue lummox
from Trap Door, Don Priestley's
successful task-orientated

game of last winter, makes a
very welcome return in his new
adventure - Through the Trap
Door.

The Trap Door, famed for the
grotesquerie that appear from
its dark maw, has been causing
problems again. Boni, the
moaning skull, has been
abducted by some cuddly but
ferocious monster and taken
down to the damp murky depths
of the land below. Holding his
nose, but ever undaunted, Berk
grabs little Drutt the mutant
spider and leaps through the
door to the rescue -

Unlike moat of Don's recent
games Through The Trap Door
is much more action packed, but
still retains the

characteristically large and
colourful graphics. Instead of
having to explore rooms and
solve lengthy puzzles, the game
takes place in a long corridor
which scrolls horizontally
across the screen. You can play
either Berk or Drutt swapping
between the two characters as
required, after all Berk is
positively too fat to do some
things and that's where Irttle
Drutt may be of help.

► Thatbig blue Berk returns in

Through The Trap Door, but just what
is Berk up to? (About three feet,

methinks - Ed)

On his travels Berk comes
across occasional magic
potions which give him powers
such as flying and bouncing.
You'll need to work out which
potion to use to get past some
of the more unpleasant
creatures.

Bug -eyes along the bottom of
the screen represent the
snoozeometer ~ if the two
heroes take too long to get past
specified points the bugs fall
asleep and when all are
slumbering either Berk or Drutt
lose a life, tf you're reading this
at the PC W Show, be sure to visit
Piranha's stand where Through
the Trap Door and Berk are on
display.

► 'OnGobbets'lFsoneofthem
peculiar creatures . . . !'

140 CRASH October 1987

WIN A BERK!

Do you want a Berk - to have
and to hold, to love and to
cherish and Keep him all for your
very own? Piranha are offering a
cuddly blue Berk for someone to
win in this Quick-Comp, Simply
name two other Don Priestley
games, write them down on a

postcard and post to: I WANNA
BERK, CRASH, PO Box tO r
Ludtow, Shropshire SY8 1DBto
arrive no later than 25 October,
which is, incidently, around the
time when Through Th& Trap
Door is to be released.

i

swap for The
Pawnor HtffYKASchimnel, 5 Darwin
Close, Nottingham, NG5 9LN

WANTED The Bizanti Horse Rating Man-
agerby Virgin will swap or buy Gary Sut-
ton, 20 Danbvry Close, Markstey, Essex.
GSff-'tfL

TtMEX PRINTER, Paper, Prate* Interface.

Were? Top software eg Gauntlet,

Zoids tot sale or swap for CBM 64 games.

Tef James; 0306 686829 after 6.00 pm.

POWERTRAH. is a Spectrum Famine. We
need pokes new and o<d, maps, and
views on presentation Write to l Ashbury
Drive, Titehurst, Beading, Becks., RG3
5LJ

FOR SALE spectrum 48K, OK Keyboard,
Interlace, Joystick, Speech Box, light
Pan, 6JK Shadow of the Unicorn, worth
ewer £400 new, Will sell lor £75. Phone
Lee on High Wycombe 37442..

URGENT, SWAP my Turbo Esprit, Back to
Skool, Feodtor your Theatre Europe oon-
tad Paul Kehoe, 62 Cianfieftj Road.
Maws Bridge, Wigan, WN3 506.

ELITE WANTED, swap For five of Com-
mando, Faidight. Movie, Saboteur.
Leadsrboard, Tournament Tapper, Robin
of the Wood, Super Soccer or Zombie
J!?wrlte to: R Brown, 9 Queens Close,
Norwich, NR4 7PE.

SINCLAIR ZX PRINTER piLiS five rolls of
paper with manual. In good working order
£15. Phone: 061-338 4274 after 8.00

WANTED 128K WAfERS for Rotrontcs
Waladrive, Writ pay £3 for each one in
excellent condition only. Tef. Weston-
super-Mare 813282, After 6.00 pm.

PENPALS WANTED most be 3 Speclrum
User, interested in writing not copyina
programs. Write to: Ian Edwards, 202
Sterling Road, Sitiingbourm, Kent, MEW
1ST. I'll bin chain tetters!

SPECTRUM SOFTWARE FOR SALE:

rom El, VA T Manager, tan Botham,
Cricket, Backpackers, Pofe Position and
more. All original. Phone Sam
3784.

ZX SPECTRUM

THE CLASSIFIEDS

WANTED, THE RATS m exchange far a
top recent release- Allan Edglnton, 2
Langton Villas, Hampden Road, London,
N1708A

WANTED ISSUE 1 AMD 9 Of CRASH

Cash or software. Phone York
7670SPeverilng$.

SWAP my DeaHevators, Jasm'sJem and
incredible Shrink Fireman for one of your
Arkanold or Army Moves. Please phone
022$ 29722. Ask for Richard.

LOTS OF GAMES TO SWAP Send your
list for mine, eg Elite, Endow Racer, Star
Quake David CasMn, 132 Donomore
Avenue, Kilfinardan, Taffaqbt Dublin 24,
Ireland.

SPEC MATE Order me first issue now.
Send a p/o for 50p to D Cummings, 64
Souffleltis Drive, Stangrwnd, Peter-
borough, PE2 8DX. (Please state name

andadi-:--

SPEC, Great New Famine for ZX Spec-
trum, only 40p. issue i available October
iid SAE for details to AT Jones, 34
Lyndate Drive, Wmnmocpe, Wakefield, W
Yorks, WF2 Qjz, M letters answered.

PEN PAL WANTED. Own Spectrum 46K.
Also own Amstrati, CPC64 would ahso'lHte
to swap games. Christian Capstan. 8

CHAOS!

The on(y problem with these classifieds is they might upset Lloyd. You
see, there have been so many ads - for fanzines, software swaps, pen
pais, pokes, copies of Spycatcher- frying in to the Towers that they're
threatening to overpower the pile of Forum letters in the mail room

mere s a good side to this invasion, though; starting ne*t month thr
classifieds will be printed under headings. Just mark on the form which
heading you want your ad to go under.

And remember there are a few rules governing these free classified

303 . * »

1 Individuals i andsmall oroantaaltane such as famjnes and tomegrown-ecfhwirs oubfHfcore are

SSwhfSS'SSJ? lll^IS?™ ?*2?S ,Wfds bn 3 **»«*«*. Postcodes ate count now
v£i 7.^& i %£J^£J x vmtt9r> ,n me toxe:S P*WdBd, ih*r« is no box-numbar service so
V OUR AD COPY MUST INCLUDE YOUR ADDRESS AND/OR PHONE ^NUMBER I

3 CtoHMiBdad9rnw*w*ulirr«edon* : C^^

4 J^iSSId*"* 8-111 * ' 8WaPPlne Pmeti «*««»» WN*«C«J«09.««*flWpllBCy

& SKS?iS2^ B ^ l ?J?''* ? ,< LF* I « prt *" 1 ' arHj no1 ^ blisi > <*»»*** *te wiuiowt reference io
M^rf5?AfiSiS B . ma, 8S n& * ^ "*** *" *"y tosfeoauaM to advert*^ i^oosruha*

^» ^ ad '" PJ-**^ **fl r '"9 u» W w«ng «hen ITb going id be pubifcfted - we'll Mi

HEADINGS (TICK ONE}

CRASH BACK NUMBERS
(OFFERED OR WANTED)
FANZINES Q

HARDWARE SALES n
HARDWARE SWAP FT
HARDWARE WANTED n
HOMEGROWN SOFTWARE □

PBMn
PEN PALS □
SOFTWARESALES
SOFTWARE SWAP f
SOFTWARE WANTE
OTHER □

Apsley Rd, Gl Yarmouth. Norfolk, NR30
2H6

SAGA EMPEROR KEYBOARD for sale
£22.00, Spectrum Power $vpply£5.0Q,
Spectrum Rubber Keyboard <£7, 50 - afl in
A1 condition Phone Choriey 761?t after
6-OOpm Martin.

New Barton Street Salford, Manchester.
FOR SALE Snapshot 2 Interface will swap
for any printer. Also wanted a Multifaee
1 . All letters answered. Write to SaryMul-
46 CaJderwoodRoad, Donnybrook,
Douglas, Cork.

NEW UNWANTED GAMES TO SWAP.
Games Include Mutant, Vulcan GAC, The
Boggit, Scatextricefc.. Also Inrterest&d in
fantasy board games. Ring Spencer any
time on (0322) 69472.
VERY GOOD SELECTION of Spectrum
games for sale from 50p to £4.00 or will
swap. Phone after 5pm 01-654 1392
irs A CRIME! P8M Turf Afepperfor
Spectrum. Full on-screen and printer
details of up to 240 blocks. £1 ppd from
Andrew Rose, 63 Milward Road, Hast-
logs, East Sussex, TN343RR.
SOFTWARE TO SWAP send list of games
to .Nick Simms, 3 Nuneaton Road, Fit-
tongley, Warwickshire, CV7 8EZ, (0676)
425Q8'\ only swap good games. '
WANT TO SWAP GAMES will swap all
kinds phone for list Tel; James on 0494
786631 Swap Animator One for Art
Studio Piease

ROTR0NIC5 WAf ADRIVE £30 or swap
for ottier hardware plus £20. Alt offers
considered, Write to Robert Gait, 14A
Rectory lane, Clinton, Peterborough,
Cambs, PES 7LR.

SPECCV FANZINE Eprom Issue Two,
great articles, reviews, vlesws, Intervies
and things. Definitely the best around?
Only 7Gp plus stamp from:- 328 Tlie
Mattings, Penwortham, Preston, Lanes
PR19FD

SELL OR SWAP your original software
through our established free newsletter,
MaKe extra money! Get those new
games! Free details (stamp pteasi
1 Robert Burgess, 1 Middteheld Road,
Rotherham, S60 3JH
ARKANOID. Droid, Academy, Six Pack,
Exchange for any games adventures or
Leaderboardt&n many other times,
James Scott, 3 Wliton dose, Taunton,
Somerset, TAf 1E7 or 0823 3378 17
SOFTWARE TO SWAP, Many good titles
write lor list to Peter Davis, The Rath,
Swords, County Dublin or ring Dublin
405063.

SPRIHT, Yes a great new fanzine is now
out. Only 30p: ail about the Spectrum, For
mora information phone Alan on Oi 959
DBH

FREE SOCCER PBMJ Absolutely no
charge except an SAE per tern. Reply now
to ensure your place. Totally free!
Interested? SAE to THS, 47 Spencer
Road, Calerham, Surrey, CR3 5LE Now!
12 YEAR OLD COMPUTER FREAK seeks
similar for correspondence. Apply: Knur
lodge, Viking Heights, MatHesrtam,
Waodbddge, Suffolk, IPI2 4RTmy name
Is James Heefflefd

SWAP SCOTCH PHOTOCOPIER VGC for
software, hardware or anything interest-
ing. Alt letters answered, write to Martin
O'Connor, 56 Whittington Hill, Did Wtiit-
tington, Chesteffiekj, Derbys., S41 9HA
PBM RUGBY LEAGUE CHALLENGE can
you lead your team to the championsnip
SAE for further details to Carmlot Games,
Cae-Ymryson, Caernarvon, Gwynadd,
LL552LR.

Hi! I have 400 games to swap, send your
list for mine to Michael Pritchard, 22Reoi
Keir Hardta, Penywaun, Aberdare, Mid
Glamorgan, Cf 44 WW.
INSTANT ACCESS Is the only poke
magazine BSpeciatfy for Multifaee, issue
2 out now only El .00 to C Redgrave, 30

'WANTAF REE c RA s„ CUss|FtE0!

ADf>R E ss ._ "" -

*■"""""•—««.„ ..,„.

. „„ '""■"• -» »

_. C1 _: *-• POSTCODE

TELEPHONE NUMBER.
WRITE AD COPY MERE "7

SEND IT

i saas&n

r™*o ?hi!«* F,E osT

1°

GOT NEW UP-TO-DATE GAMES? So

have I. Want lo swap them? So do t!!
Write and send your Hat for mine • if?
Gabriel 67 Hightmd Terrace. Uffcuime.
Devon, EX15 3Bi.

IS VR 010 MALE would Eke to swap

software with male of female penpal over

400 fittee write to R Stiaw, 1 1 Fuisbwt

Crescent, Ayr, KA80ND.

WANTED MULT1FACE 128 - must be

reasonable- Please phone (0782)

626920atl& four o'clock. Ask for

Edward,

CfiASH BACK ISSUES numbers 2

wanted. Good prices paid. Write to Robert

Lines, The Last f-ioim, GomerLme.Gos-

r '01220W.
1 28K AND 48K SOFTWARE to swap. Also
wap or sell Slo-mo, Kempston. Interface,
Seed your list for mine to V Vity, 19 Croft
Street, Moreoambe, Lams.,LA45SS.
RESTART \$ a great Spectrum games
mag costing 40p and a stamp from
Restart, 1 The Beams, Ufton Ctosg,
Maidstone, Kent, ME158EH.
48K SPECTRUM, PRINTER, Low-Profile
Keyboard, Light Pen, amplifier, Kempston
Interface and Joystick arid worthy collec-
tion of top software. Worth over £850.
Sell tor £390. 01-5310564.
IS THERE A FEMALE PEN FRIEND out
there? 14-16. Please write to me: Lee
Pendleton, 7 LongMt, MaQtiult, Merse-
Vsm r L316Af.

OVER 100 SPECTRUM ORIGINALS to
swap or sell. Many new titles, including
Uridlum, Kwah, Nemesis. Send SAE for
list Rick VHiter, 65 Barnwell Drive,
Rushoen, Northants., NN1Q9H8,
ANY DISK INTERFACE WANTED Please
phone, after 5.00 pm., (0332)
7551 52 and I would like one which works
with BBC disk drives.
SWAP Currah Speech and OKTronics
light Pen tor Cheetah Sweet Tamer Of
Stack Light Rifle or Cheetah Raior almosi
anything hardware, software. David

Sheffietd 747327.
MULTIFACE ONE POKES over 260 cover-
ing 150 new (and old) games. Send only
60p +■ SAE to Darren Roy, 153 Norse'y
Road, Biifericay, Essortor S typed sides
of A4.

WANTED WORKING 48K RUBBER KEY
SPECTRUM or Spectrum Plus will pay
£25 plus postage. Write to Chris Gormlt,
205 Cop Lane, Penwortham, Preston,

PR19AB.
SWAP fMCFOR WAFADRIVE STORAGE
SYSTEM and some Wafas from recent
originate. Also swap Currah Speech, Fifth
and The Heal You for the Murtitace One.
Matthew Barton. The Old Vicarage,
Brcariwidger, Litton, Devon. PL160EP.
MEW TAPE MAG! Spectrum issue one
only £1.00. First five replies get money
backl Pokes, reviews, news etc. Stamp
and cheque to M Tonks, 57 Myrtle-
Avenue, Selby, North Yorks,, Y08 98G.
WANTED Ligntfofce (For Urate),
Ghosts S Goblins (Big 4), Strike Force,
Cobra (Hijack), Glider Rider (Saboteur II),
Winter Games (Commando & Feud)
phone Zak 061 -962 7638.
SOFTWARE EXCHANGE CLUB Free
membership. Exchange your unwanted
games (originals only} cheaply. Send SAE
tor details to: Qn-Spec, 23 Florence Road,
West Briddford, Nottingham, NG'2 5HH
WANTED Microdrive and Interface 1
Swap for over 20 games including
RanaRama, Saboteur 11, Flretord and
KungFu Master, tf interested please ring
Stuart (0633) 440974 after 6.00 pm,
PBM! Why not play a Free PBM - Domain,
a futuristic game, where players have to
I ay alive. Send an SAE to Andrew
Bonner, Domain Systems, 4 Park Grow,
Bexiey Heath, Kent, DA7 6AA.
SWAP GAC. Currah Speech, Bobby Bear-
ing, Thanatos, Scalextrfc, Turbo Esprit,
Winter Games and Feud tor a Spectrum
+ extra Instrument tapes. Jonatftan

142 CRASH October 1987

Beech, 4 Duffry Close. Bassaleg. New-
port Gwent, NPf 9PD.

SOFTWARE EXCHANGE CLUB, Free

membership exchange unwanted origi-
nals. Send SAE for details and free mem-
bership to Ram-Soft Exchange Club, 14
Park Avenue, Keyworth, Nottingham,
BG12 SLA.

FOR SALE The Great Escape, They Sold
A Million and Gnosis n Goblins. Brand
new. £12 one. Phone 055 588239 for
more details:

ATTRACTIVE MALE seeks female pen-
mend aged between 15/16, Interests
include sport computers and practically
anything else! Please write and Include
details of yourself. Martin Gunn, 10
Springfield Place, Chelmsford, Essex,
CM1 5ZA.

SUNDAY LEAGWihe soccer PBM Game.
For further details send a SAE to Sport
Games, i Patricia Drive, Arnold, Notts,
NG58GJ.

WANTED Opus Discovery tor £40 Ram-
tuittb, Elite, Bounces. Hot Shots, Kung Fu
Master. Arkanold, Music-Box. Dam Bus-
ters, Max Headroom, Deathstar, Intercep-
tor. Contact Paul phone (0634) 64 1 79.

DEATH BALL A PSM game when
thing goes, players required for new sea-
sanabout to begin. Send a SAE A P Over-
ton, 23 Falconer Lane, Woodhouse Mill,
Sheffield, ST3 ftZL,

WANTED ALPHACOM 32 WITH PAPER

£15 available for a good one. Microdrive
cartridges atso wanted. Write to Mick
EMackman, 3 Glffard Drive, Cove,
Famborougri, Hants., GUI 4 8PU.
HELP AND SUGGESTIONS HEEDED for
'my own PBM wargame it would
have armies, nukes, civilians and careful
economy would be needed. Thanks.
Jason Smith, 1 Galloway Road. Swinton.

SNOOPY paperbacks wanted nos 46, 41 ,
39, 31 . Ail CRASH Issues available, 6AC-
for £10, 2)iffH|psfor £4 Phone (Ringwood)
04254 5772.

SPECTRUM -h, stin boxed, interface.
joystick over £360 worth of software and
mags as new would cost over £500, Sell
for £160. Tel 0602 273621.

SPECTRUM 48K FOR SALE plus
Kempston Interface and a few games £45
one. Phone Derby (0332) 81 0773.

WANTED SPECTRUM 48K OR 128Kwirh

or without disk interface, i also need a
teletext decoder, For sale: RAM Mtisfc
Machine. Tel Coffins 01 -579 9455.

WANTED 1Z8K SPECTRUM for around
£60. Box and teads desirable. Humber-
sida area preferred. 45 Huntley Drive,
Murraylieid Road, Hull, HU5 40P. Tei
(0482) 442725.

SWAP Aliens, Ace. Super-Soccer, Com-
modore 1 531 , Datasse II, Catch 23, Great
Escape, Firelord, Head Over Heels, Vul-
can. Yankee, Sherlock, Zub, Hob&lt and
more phone Stefan on 091 -460 4861 .

WILL SWAP Great Escape or Seooby Doo
for both games called Knight Tyme and
Stormbringer. Lee Davis of -745 2332.

SPECTACULAR i$m hip 'n ' coal fanzine
to be seen reading ! Send 50p and a stamp
to J Davtes, 28 Claremont Road,
Bishopston, Bristol, BS7 SDH. .

DOES ANYONE OUT THEHE know how to
get out of the Marsh in the Shadows of

Mordor^ if so please write to tell me.
Thanks. Robert Gregson, 14 Lindsay
Road, Watton, Liverpool 4, Merseyslde.

SPECTRUM +, Currah Speech, Tape
Deck, over £ 1 50 worth of books and soft-
ware cost over £320. The whole lot far
only £1CQ ono. Ptione (0903) 724057.

L

WINNERS Ctg PRIZES

DESIGN A GAME
FOR DOMARK

The winners and runners-up for
this issue 39 comp were decided
by Richard Naylor of Domark and
Graham Stafford of Design Design
- or Walking Circles, as rt"s called
now,. The winning entry was a
game design called Pile Driver and
came from Tony Worrell of
Lancashire PRl 9FD r who edits
the Spectrum fanzine EPROM.

Well done, Tony, and don't
fritter your £500 cash prize away,
now - you could pay to have the
broom cupboard redecorated.

Aspecial second prize went to J
Fradley of Yeovil BA20 2PB for a
model-
Some of the 23 runners-up were
ZZAP! 64 readers (the same comp
was run in ZZAP!), so they
shouldn't expect two prizes just

because they're listed here too -
anyway, ZZAP! readers should be
honoured enough to have their
names mentioned in CRASH. All

t runners-up win games on

the Streetwise label . . .

MarceJ van Oriel, 7*06 BV Zutphen,
Holland; Marcus Ugftt, W York* BO f 5 SLA;
Andrew Sandham, Aberdeenshire AS3
4HQ; Brian BurreB. Essex CM15 OEW; Leo
Martin/Stephen Bradshaw, Hove BN3 6AA;
Raymond Chan, € Sussex BN4 2PP; Julian
Stockoc, Levin. New Zealand; Howard
Carlisle, Leeds LS1B 4HO; Lucian Paul
Hoar*. London SE4 2DT; lain Murrey, f rfe
KY1 1 SAE; Knaiid Jamil, London MW2 6LA.;
Gary MeDfcnmnid, Angus OD? 80S; Tim
E a j t s tMV Milton Kevnes MK3 6PP; £i D ut
cte KoK, 790T GE Boogeveen, Holland: l«n
West, Bucks MKIfi 2PE; SJmon E Critchley,
Hull HU14 3NN; Anthony iarvj»/Hartttww
Whitby, Esssx H3S 9AE; Timotny Hodges,
Camos PES 6YL; John AtKlnscwi, Cumbrie
CA1S 7DO; Kov4n Payne, Awon SS18 2RZ;
and Stuart Thuralon. Worcester

HERCULE DE
MINION COMP

US Gold's super sleuthing comp
in Issue 43 brought in a milliard
entries, and for those of you
waiting on the edge of your seats
wanting to know who stole my
"buttered scone the answer is
Lloyd Mangrem (not Skippy!),
Nasty creature - it's the last time I
prune his rosesl Anyway, the
winner (who gets a Pink Panther
video, Agatha Christie's novel
DeathOn The M/eand the issue 42
Smash Killed Until Dead} is
Jonatfion Lari of Wales C F6 2DQ,
Four second prizes - a detective
novel and Killed Until Dead each -

to to James Yeo from
edfordshireMK441BL;

Nicholas Young from Lancashire
OL3 5EG; C Walker Smith from
Derby, DE2 9LL; and Gareth C
Jones from Cardiff CF5 3SW. 1 5
more copies of Killed Until
Dead go to:

Tom HoJsteln r Hampshire RG23 7AA; Adam
BriaBs, Notts S81 ONX; A Wrtson, Angus
DD3 BOW; Hoxanne Bailey. Reading RQ2
90L; Paul Dixon, Kortt SR8 7YR; Stuart
Brown, Wast Yorfcaliire LSfl 4B¥; Richatd
Wail, Kant CT4 80J; A P Goods,
Birmingham B4£ 1LW; Darr*n Martimer,
Birmingham B31 3UW; Stuart IM flM l a y,
Mottjfto/iamshira NG12 5LQ; John
Croasdale, MofSnghamshlre NG15 9FT;
Philip Louthar, Lanes FYS 3Q0; Nlchola
Trusoott, Gloucester GL2 6UA; OarvJfrl
Wade, nr Southpon, Lanes; and Thomas
Price, Devon EX SEE

WHOOOOPS!

OK, so I made a mistake - and
they'll never let me forget rt. In the
Ferguson adventure oomp in Issue
41, Question 4 should have been
Type in Fordo's birthday - which
game's that? ' - as in Fordo from

CRL's Bored Of The Rings rather
than Frodo who, as everyone but
me knew, is the hero of Lord (MThe
Rings. You don't get much
literature in the broom
cupboard-. . .

ENTERING
COMPETITIONS

If you want to send entries to more
than one CRASH competition in
the same envelope, write
MULTIPLE EhfTRY on it clearly
and send it to PO Box 10, Ludlow,
Shropshire SYS 1DB.

You are reminded, as if you need
to be, that the editors' decision is
final when it comes to picking the
winners and deciding the

correctness of answers to
questions set. Also, the exact
number of winners and runners-up
may be sllghtty different from that
announced in the competition
(depending largely on the number
and quality of entries), though
prizes will be exactly as promised
whenever possible.

WEAR A COVER ON
YOUR CHEST!
PART OF THE GLITTERATI

HE NEW

£5.50

CRASH T-Shjrts come tip to
date with full coiouf CRASH
covers by our very own Oli
Frey on the front- as well as
the CRASH logo. Each cover
has been personally chosen
by a member of the CRASH
team. Available in two sizes:
Medium and extremely
grossly porky (XX Large).
Just the perfect
complement to your winter
woollies or summer shorts in
50% cotton and 50%
polyester. You better get 'em
quick - they're a limited
edition!

The last word in labels!

RED MOON SHIRT

"I picked Red Moon

co2 it's got a big 'n'

nasty venomous

monster to frighten

off people you don't

want to talk to, it's

also a nifty bit of

artwork. Worra

uptown tease!"

RICKY

EVIL EMPEROR
SHIRT

' Head and Heels's

arch enemy on your

chest! Well, it's better

than my school

uniform! Good for

becoming a real

yuppie -exclusive

CRASH shirt and a

filofax. Dress to thrill

ready to squeak!"

MIKED

CRASH T-SHIRT ORDER FORM

I must admit, the cool super-hype of your advertising agency has
made an impression on my gullible consumenst tendencies. I give in,
I want one (or more) of the new CRASH fuJI-colour cover T-Shirts. Ii
fact I'm so worked up about it all that I've enclosed a cheque/postal
order made payable to NEWSFIELD LTD so's I can have what my
heart desires . . .

I've ticked the appropriate boxf.es}, ao please send me, at £5.50
each:

Q RED MOON SHIRT
Q EVIL EMPEROR SHIRT
□ KING GRUB SHIRT

MD XXLQ
MQ XXLQ
MQ XXLQ

Name ....
Address

Postcode

Total payment enclosed £ item ordered. Please allow 28

Prices include postage, packing days for delivery, although every

and VAT for UK Main land. Europe effort will be made to send you t

and Overseas, please add £2 per goods before that period.

PLEASE DEBIT MY VISA/ACCESS ACCOUNT £

I wish to pay by Visa/Access (delete as applicable)
Signature

Expiry Date

Please Charge My Account No:

CRASH T-SHIRT OFFER, PC BOX 20,
LUDLOW, SHROPSHIRE, SY8 1DB.

KING GRUB SHIRT

"What's all this then?

A nasty Grubby stain

on my shirt — none

other than the
Grubbiest stain ever

it's King Grub,

eponymous star of

our new comic-strip!

May I warn you that

anything I say about

this brill shirt may be

worn and held

against you"

PAUL

HOW TO GET YOUR SPECTRUM REPAIRED FOR ONLY £19.95

{rc P* fans'. (vor*nrpr i»^
t SO incurtmfl ntiHva w

MOfm* rp&iimer.HO'dW' onte
£43 55 KfDklftintfiir'QO

n* ironies »*•
whC?S)

■ |0 M »M

SPECIAL OFFER! W SPECIAL OFFER!

HHi* n« vepw rowi* Sfltetfw* MJ * W

!M?jtf17 95 '"fluffing vn pcviF4wnig

m .

i ...

A *uH» ncVi*if inlet toemtr
com 'Wiuartfl r ng*n

f«n hftirUf rt«rutCHJn\
iiipptifo win rim «q

«(«» ? mo s a**

SAGA LO-PROFILE

PROFESSIONAL KEYBOARD j
R.R.P, £39,95 f *Q 5C

SALE PRICE ONLY

TEN -A- REPAIR SERVICE

» While you wait service including
compote r spare parts ove r the e ounter

* All co mou ters fully overhauled and Fu«v
tested before return

* FuJiv insured f or tne return fpuroev

* Ftxea low price of ei 9.95 mciudtn g pose
packing ana WAT iNotaftetweenprice
of reaiiv up to £50.00 which some of our
competitors are quoting i

* Discounts for schools and coheq es

BEST SERVICE -

* Five top games worth £39.00 for you to
enjoy and plgy vyitn every Spectrum repair

* We repair commodore 64 s Vic?o$.
commodore 16s and Plus* s

* The most up to date test equipment
developed Pvustofuiiv test and f mo an
faults within your computer

* Kevooard repairs Spectrum rubber key
boards only ffi. 95.
3 montn written guarantee on an repairs

BESTPRtCE S / 7-f

ARE YOU ANOTHER CUSTOMER - fed UP

waiting weeks for your estimate?

Need your computer repaired fasc Trten send It now co the Number One Repair

Compan y Irt th e U .K. , or cal 1 1 n and see us at our fully eq nipped 2 500 sq ware foot workshop,
with all the latest test equipment available- ¥ou are more than welcome.
We will repair your computer whiie you wart and help you with any of your technical problems
Commodore computers repaired for only £55.00 Please note we gove vou a 100$; low fixed
prtce of £19.95 which includes return post and packing, vat not a between pnee like some
other Repai r compan*? offer we don't ask you to send a cheque in for the maximum amount and
snocK you wsm repair Dili 5 £50 upwards. Pont forget we are Amstrad aproved for quality and
speed, don' t risK your computer to any other unauthorised repair centre. We dont just repair the
fault and send your computer Back, we give your computer *;■

OVERHAUL WITH EVERY REPAIR WE DO:-

We correct Colour, sound. Keyboard. Check the loading and saving chip, Put new feet on
the Base rf required. Check for fuii memory check an sockets including ear/mine and replace
where needed. AH for an inclusive price of £19.95 Including VAT, all parts, insurance and post
and packing No hidden extras whatsoever we don t have to Ooast too much about our
service as we have thousands of customers from all over the world highly delighted with our
service a first class reputation for speed and accuracy oorvt forget, we also now have a
Service Branch an Manchester City Centre for whiie vou wait service

way

rtODon catue to
extend your pots for
vour peripheral i

£10.95

» {Mu* £1 SO p &

&*

&^m.

^

HiwifNlHfUi.f

'ClUHOtaMlfW to*WVO**'

On vEIS SW^iu^rtfloto

£9.0Op.iif.5£a*(i

Spectrum keyboard
membranes
£5.50 plus ei 50 p & p
Spectrum Pius spare
Keyboard membranes
E12.90piL.ftC' Stipip
ZX 81 membranes
fSOOpiu^eisop&p

URGENT NOTICE Don't be misled by adverts showing Between prices.' A recent
com plaint against a Manchester repair firm Mancomp, was upheld by the Advertising
standards Authority on two counts, - »t had stated BBC repairs between £id and £45
then charged the customer £85." Their guarantee policy was misleading as it did not
make dear that all repairs were not covered.

USE ANY
JOYSTICK WITH
YOURSPECTRUM + 2

SINCLAIR JOYSTICK RAPTOR FDR
CONNECTING SPECTRUM + 2
COMPUTERS TB MOST JOYSTICKS

Ott-OFF SWITCHES
FOR THE SPECTRUM
AND SPECTRUM +

ORDER No
1067 SPECTRUM
10S7A SPECTRUM^ '- -.
£4.95 + ! SO p + p

THE ViDEO VAULT COMPUTER COMPANION

Tt]t vweovault has just releasee: the most up to date and exciting catalogue ever produced, our team of experts ngve scoured
the gfobe to ftrsd you all the latest software and add on's fc* your compute* . all the latest injovstici techrtokigy , all the top and
tested software tees all a t Qmt discounts to you Anyone can apply no w Just serni 2 x 1 8p stamps to me Catalogue Dept atthe
address beSow for your free copy. We have an the top oranoed stems available, delivery by return post .'our usual standard! Al I
goods carry our guarantee of satisfaction. Never has such a catalogue ever Been produced before including spare parts. ULA,
membranes, power supplies -all at discount prices.

STOP PRESS!! BRANDNEWSPECTRUMPLUSCOMPUTERSINCLUDING
POWER SUPPLY, LEADS AND MANUAL JUST £59.95 + £1.50 p + p.

140 High street West, Clossop, Derbyshire SK13 8H)
res- 04574-66555/67761 Head office & access orders. qweries.
Manchester o&v 256 0576 wrwe vou wait repair centre only,

Copyr f gnt vxJeovauiT US No 736CJ2 WE NO W HAVE FAX: <0J 4574 63046

POST + PACKING
CHARGES UK ONLY
OVERSEAS
POST + PACKING
CHARGES PLEASE
WRJTE FOR
OUOTE

CRASH October 1987

GOGGLE!

VI DS TO FREEZE YOUR
FRAME FOR...

CIC VideoJrcttts its attack en the rented shelves
with ^e biggest release f<y October, Top Gun,
starring Tom Cruise {Risky Business, Legend,
fite Color Of Monefl as an ambitious young
figrrterpikJt. trarar»gat ttw US Navy's predgjous
Fighter Weapons School. Kelly MeCillis
I W>tnes$ also stars as the sclwol's lecturer with
wtom Cruise becomes fomarfljcally imolwd

..:.'.'? was the most successful video e«r
whenreleassd:mtheU$faiela5tyear--butit was
• off the Number One slot by atwt her CC
'affls Oeferfc fey CM Matthew
Braderic* (WarGames, Ladyhawke) stars as a
srnoDttvtalhing, attractrue and intelligent
teenager wing sfe to the tuH, After ccmvioeinghs
best friend, Cameron, that they must borrow he
lather's 1961 fcwari, he sets of! with fte-rds to
tour the s$tfs of dov/ntowri Chicago. Its on the
shBJvBSnow»dOfl"tmiT

Qnthesamelabelandfromthe writers of Too
ftp comes tega/ Sgfes, featuring Robert
Redford as an Assistant District Atfor ney and
Debra Wiflger as a competing lawyer-'tjw^
vombme thee legal minds tosolve-a crane going
back 15 years.

The last day of September sees
Entertainment In Video's release of of the

*■ ferns Buellets Bay Off

Fm gets ready for big business, too, with the
hugely successful Crocodile Dundee totting the
sWwsn October So much has been saidabout
this AusJraSan wonder that many' people ftaue
come away disappointed aft*/ all the hype - still,
don I miss it, And CBS Fax also has /^ggy Sue
Got Married out tor Qclobe/- - a sod: ot Back Jo
The fafttfs fe r 'grawHips , starring Kathleen
Turner \P?tzzi's Honour Jews to The rife) mthe
tie role,

Sober \2 Nobody's fool, from
:, Sony Video Software reaves the
Shops. Rosanna ArquetteiDe^pefsteiySedwg
St/san, After Hpwrai plays the part of Cassie, torn
between (he lover of her chequered past (whom
she stabbed in a restaurant) and her present
attraction to fiitey (played by Erie Roberts from
Runaway Train}.

Lookout a! the endofO-ctcberforCIC Video's
release TfieW!wpee8ffiTwywr\%#<iti,M$
and Barcey, go to finishing school b help a
beautiful Palm Beach heiress gar her inheritance
and marry the perfect ge/ i duller

months coming on 11 looks like there's a lot of
goggle-box watchmgeemmgup to alleviate those
exerting' new airtumri TV schedules. Ws'iitry and
review as many as we ran

comedy/horror him House II- The old owner has

moved out (wise feUow!} but some poor fool

(tempted by the low price, nodoubt) moves m to

u->' -. : ,, ;■&;.& Chris WalaS'! Tne Fly Gtemlir^ is

r esponsibte for the scary special effecis. CSS

AT LONG LAST
SINCLAIR

ON SEPTEMBER 1 Sir Cfive Sinclair's
long-awaited new kneetop computer,
theZ88, was put on sale in the high-
street chain stores Comet and Dixons.
ft retails for £287.50 {batteries not
Included!].

"The Z8S is a fraction of the cost of
its competitors, yet it is the
advanced and powerful portable
computer on the market," said Sir Clive
at a press conference on September 3,

SUNK!

VOU may be wondering why CRASH
hasn't mentioned $9
conversion of the classic board game is
grab!.: 1 ' $ imash'hit reviews

from Computer & Video Games and

■ : " «d.ed

ilour

and alter- hearing s

comments on Battiest

decided to 'stt on t hi I elite's

idded,

'Battleships will not de released as a
lu'l-price game,' Elite's decision backs
up the opirifOn of CRAS H revi ewers who
saw Batttsships before it was
kawn.

finally launc hlng the product which was
first expected in the New Year.

The tmy Z8S. with keyboard and
screen together 1 only the size of CRAS H ,
comes wfth built-in software which
includes word-processing and
spreadsheet functions, a calculator
program, a diary, a database, a
calendar, a clock and (watt for it) BBC
BASIC and assembler.

Production has started m Scotland
by SCI UK, part of the American SCI
corporation - the world's largest
subcontractor in computer
manufacturing, according to Sinclair.

WOT NO

searing:

CRASH October 1987 145

► Keep on wagglfn';

Konix competition winner
Marls Geert in Brussels

RIDDLE OF

BOFFINS' WAG BID

TRAGEDY

IN a shock move that left thousands cf
European waggringenthusiasts shaking
aH over, joystick manufacturer Konix
last night announced the collapse of its
record-breaking Speed King after
17,604,000 waggles, Our Wagging
Editor wnten.

A shaken spokesman described the
tragedy, which took place In front of
20,000 horrified holidaymakers (well,
one or two bored Functionaries at
Konlx's Welsh plant), 'it just started
missing the odd click' said Michael
Baxter, 'nothing particularly
phenomenal.'

But there were smiles through the
tears for Belgian waggler Mans Geert,,
who won £100 in a competition to
guess the loystick's endurance. Geert's
estimate of 643 hours was off by only
nine hours - the Speed King actually
lasted 652 hours (more than 27 days),
at 450 waggles per minute.

Said Geert ' I had heard how durable
the Speed King fs r and so I worked out
how long decent joysticks should fast
when playing Daley Thompson's
Decathlon, doubled it - et vollaT

Guesses at the joystick's waggling
life had ranged from 14 minutes
{believable of some products?) to eight
years; both people who submitted
those extreme estimates have been
rewarded wth Speed Kings, joining
some half million happy Konix wagglers
worldwide.

The company will release a £12,95
autofire Speed Kfngat The PCWShow.
and it's planning a 'beautiful new
concept' in Joysticks, to be launched in
the New Year, Added a highty-p! a
source: 'We are confident that Ed - is
this plug for Konix bng enough?

1 46 CRASH October 1 987

PEE-ARE-
MANIA

Number One in an occasional
series: THE SPONGE

This is a sponge. A round green sponge sent to us
by Lesley Mansford km Electronic Arts,

Fine. We threw it around for a white. Roger stucfc
it to te computer and squeezed it occasKsaHy,
and Ricky used it to mop his or ow in the
sweltering heal Pah!

After much deliberation we decided it smett
like a Heathrow departure lowge carpet, GUT
seriously, viewers, after a bit or investigative
journalism Et M discovered that ft was a Nerf
BaH - an American Invention.

You'resijpposedtohave hundreds in tt*e office
and wtienever a Nerf Break is caSed for,
ever/body turns p-ga and bungs them wound
suppo&edjy 'to relieve pent up tension'.
Unfortunately, wlh only one Nerf Ball, Nerf breaks
aren't as jolly as they sSouto be.

(That's enerfNerf Balls -Ed Dir)

BUBBLE BABBLE TOY
TROUBLE

Competition ahoy! Pictured above are flenand
Ricky outside in the park playing with some odd
contraption known as the Incredibubble .from
MHI Toys, The long pole Ben ss sticking into the
bubWe mixture houses at rts end a loop of what
looks Ske Smicker elastic. Pull back the tube on
the pole, the loop opens and, hey presto! when
held to the wind, rtforms. and releases a gigantic
bubble.,.

Unfortunately tise contraption couM onty be
made to btow one measly bubble, and after
apendinganSKjur or more playing about with ft we
thought it had better be put to some use - so
here's a wee comp.

We're not going to give away a recafcitrant
bubble-maker, but you can wm some CRASH
DubblebitnandaCRASHT-shiit(scepage I43|;
send a captmn for this absurdly odd photo to
BUflflLES IN THE BATH, CRASH, PO Box 10,
Lwfow, Shropshire SYS JOS to arrive no later
than 25 September, Oh I'm forever Wowing
Bubbles ...

► Tlw Nerf Ball held ready for a spot
of nerfing (note expensive
manicure done at Ludlow Beauty
Emporium)

► rfs Ben and Rictcy , , - but can you think of a caption? The sillier the better

FIRST DOLE-
PLAYING GAME

You Are Maggie Thatcher

by Hunt Emenoit and Pat Mills. Published

by Tttan Books at £4.95

' :artoo«St Hunt
Emerson and role-playing writer and onetime
5O0040editor Pat MiHs bring a wckadserse of
political humow to this first ever connc-strip
adventure book. You get a chance to. become

North Finchley's -g eatest heroine, bullying,
cabling and (hardly ever} Riding Britain through
crisesof enormity whfet never loarigsight c-1 the
real goal - your political career,

Somewhere n spirit between Private Eye
meets Dwigeonsand Dragons and Spfflmglrtiage
takes on Judge Dredd, You Are Maggie Thatcher
tsa novel experience for the politicaty aware role-
player with an eye on Parliament. Its out on 30
October, but be warned; some of the humour may
offend!

ROGER KEAK

;yjgju aRC^

a Dsle-PLaYiNg GAMe

ETAL's

LITERATURE

COLUMN

The World's Best Computer Jokes
by Rex Malik. Published by Angus
& Robertson at £1.95

(tariff picked up The World's Best Con
Mesi imagined I was in for an afternoon Wtenng
artd spluttering nicutWuls of coflee over the
Spectrum at the turn of a page Bwt it was not to
be. I can't help flunking that this book is the tend
Of thing Amstrad would stag in win their PC
systems as a complement (if not a complimenti
to the manual. Mast jokes are what I would tefflf
schoolboy humour for business «ecidwes after
a hard day on thar IBM mamta:

Written joAes are a&ng the lines of " My
computer is user -friendly, but not over
familiar . . . '.and cartoons are in the middle-aged
man sits at home computer and on the screen
appears. 'Get rid of the wife' vein.

The Wo/Id's Best Computet Mes may be a
nice stocking ffler for Uncte Harry a! Chretmasm
exchange for the orange Worts three sizes to
big he gaw you last year, but don't expect any
decent guffaws or any mention of the Spectrum
ttrerWCKYEDOV

v ■ . ^1

\ y-fw

onam

M ARCADE NIGHTMARE NOW FOR

vuw

<&>

^

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Ml

T

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I III

s^H

• IS*

tf

SPECTRUM

COMMODC

i

APftTRAD

!

Ocean Software LirHited
6 Central Street ■ Manchester • M2 5NS ■ Tel; 061 832 6633 - Telex: 669977

Ihr ill to the action as the legend eomes to life!

mm*****"*

WWW fi ^J2SS5 WW* *»«

Pic h. up your trilby and trusty buliwhip and don the mantle o< trie legendary Indiana
Jones! Prepare yours-etf tor your mosl dangerous adventure yet - to storm the evil
Temple of Doom and rescue the Imprisoned children and the magical stories of Sankara!
Beware the foss and hazards that block, your way.
The Thuggee guards will fight to the finish and
poisonous cobra snaKes will rise up in front of you,
You will traverse perilous ledges, ride under-ground
railways, and cross the bottomless fiery pit in
pursuit of your quest!

and skill. Push yourself to the limit, ride your luck
and the magical stones may just be yours!

J? 5±liuj

EMM

Screens Irem Are*** Vtrsten

ATARI STo.skE19.99